Festive

It seems everyone is having a festival lately. The Indian's just ended Deepavali, the Malay's are having Hari Raya Puasa and the Chinese are celebrating Jiu Wang Ye. Colored lights are being displayed and fireworks are going off constantly.

Deepavali is the Hindu festival of lights which symbolises the victory of good over evil, and lamps are lit as a sign of celebration and hope for mankind.

Hari Raya Puasa marks the end of Ramadan. Ramadan is the name of the one-month fasting period when Muslims fast from dawn till sunset. During the period of fasting, apart from eating and drinking, Muslims are also forbidden from smoking and having sexual relations.

Jiu Wang Ye or loosely translated as the arrival of the Nine Heavenly Kings. It's a annual Buddhist event that takes place around this time of year, and those who follow it observe a vegetarian diet for slightly over a week.

On Saturday my Indian taxi driver invited me to his home for an open-house dinner. He lives near by so Kelly and I rode our bikes over and enjoyed some good spicy Indian food, beer and fun company.

Kelly's mom removed everything non-veggie from the fridge. They have all this veggie food that looks and tastes very similar to non-veggie food. Mushrooms that appear to be meat for example. I actually like the veggie food better than the normal food. They have a separate table for eating non-veggie stuff. They even wash the non-veggie dishes in a separate sink. Gotta keep it separated!