We're not the only pebble on the beach

In the previous post when I said "I hope your Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, et al was a good one and that the New Year will turn out to be one of your very best ever" I was not purposely overlooking all of the Hindus, Muslims, and Buddhists among my vast (yeah, right) reading audience. Never fear, I know you are out there somewhere and if by some chance one of you should run across this post some day, I hasten to add that I omitted your major holidays for a perfectly sound reason: This is December and they occur at other times of the year.

Let's do a little exploring.

Here's what Wikipedia has to say about Diwali:

"Dipavali (IAST: Dīpāvalī), commonly known as Diwali (/dɪˈwɑːliː/), is the Hindu festival of lights, with variations celebrated in other Indian religions such as Jainism and Sikhism. It symbolises the spiritual victory of Dharma over Adharma, light over darkness, good over evil, and knowledge over ignorance. Diwali is celebrated during the Hindu lunisolar months of Ashvin (according to the amanta tradition) and Kārtika – between mid-October and mid-November. The celebrations generally last five or six days.

"Diwali is connected to various religious events, deities and personalities, such as being the day Rama returned to his kingdom in Ayodhya with his wife Sita and his brother Lakshmana after defeating the demon king Ravana. It is also widely associated with Lakshmi, the goddess of prosperity, and Ganesha, the god of wisdom and the remover of obstacles. Other regional traditions connect the holiday to Vishnu, Krishna, Durga, Shiva, Kali, Hanuman, Kubera, Yama, Yami, Dhanvantari, or Vishvakarman."

So since Diwalie means festival of lights, is it the Hindi version of Hanukkah? In a word, no.

Moving right along, in Vietnam things get a bit complicated.

According to Wikipedia, "Tết (Vietnamese: [tet̚˧˦], chữ Hán: 節), short for Tết Nguyên Đán (chữ Hán: 節元旦; literally 'Feast of the first day') is the most important celebration in Vietnamese culture. Tết celebrates the arrival of spring based on the Vietnamese calendar and usually falls between late January and 20 February in the Gregorian calendar. Tết Nguyên Đán is not to be confused with Tết Trung Thu. "Tết" itself only means festival but it would generally refer to the Lunar New Year in Vietnamese, as it is often seen as the most important festival amongst the Vietnamese and the Vietnamese diaspora, with Tết Trung Thu regarded as the second-most important."

I never knew until just now that Vietnamese folks think Spring begins somewhere between late January and 20 February. Live and learn.

I know so little about other cultures. It is so interesting to be learning about some of them at this late date, by which I mean this late date in my life of 84.75 years, not this late date in 2025.

I don't want to strain your patience or your good will, so a discussion of other holidays such as Eid will have to wait until another time.

So there you have it, my 70th post for the year 2025, tying the 70 posts I created in 2024. Back in the good old days of 2012 and 2008 this blog grew by over 200 posts per year.

Maybe it will again, but as my mother used to say, don't hold your breath.