Slow small changes

[Vinayaka]

As Hinduism, particularly the Indian variety, gets more and more integrated into western communities, those communities adapt, make changes to laws, and more. Some more visible ones are ISKCON's Rathayatri routes, with police traffic support, the building of temples on rezoned land, outdoor cremation sites. Slowly it's becoming easier to practice ou faith here.

Here's another small example. Milton To Allow Diwali Fireworks | Weekly Voice – The Newspaper for South Asians in GTA

 

[Maya3]

Nice!

Maya

 

[Sb1995]

I live 5 minutes away from Milton

 

[Vinayaka]

I live 5 minutes away from Milton

There you go. Stock up on fireworks for next November! Here in Canada we've become accustomed to no or little fireworks. Two years back we did New Year's (the Gregorian one) in Mauritius, and there is no law limiting it. Needless to say we were up most of the night. There Jan 1 and Jan 2 are stat holidays. You could smell the gunpowder in the air the next morning. ... Just another little culture shock thing.

 

[Aupmanyav]

At time too much of it in Delhi. Think about someone paying Rs.10,000 for a cracker chain which burns out in 10 minutes. Too much ostentation. Younger ones in my family are mad about it. I am a conservative old person.

 

[Vinayaka]

Aup, In the west certain of our religious customs have been difficult to practice because of the ignorance in the west about them. So occasionally we have to be a bit political just to get the point across. Another one that still has a long way top go is the observance of religious holidays. Some employers may have gone to an idea of permitting days off for this, in an effort for staff moral, but for the most part it's not recognised.

But we're not particularly political about this, and more than likely just 'go along'. Now I would have loved to have been able to practice Sivaratri, and take the next day off. But the whole idea was so foreign to the powers that be that it was basically impossible, and not worth the effort.

So each little thing like this one shown above is one step closer to being able to practice our faith to a fuller extent than as it is.

That's the topic.

 

[Sb1995]

There you go. Stock up on fireworks for next November! Here in Canada we've become accustomed to no or little fireworks. Two years back we did New Year's (the Gregorian one) in Mauritius, and there is no law limiting it. Needless to say we were up most of the night. There Jan 1 and Jan 2 are stat holidays. You could smell the gunpowder in the air the next morning. ... Just another little culture shock thing.

I've done fireworks outside my house for my entire life. Never had any problems.

 

[Vinayaka]

I've done fireworks outside my house for my entire life. Never had any problems.

At Divali? I think that fireworks and firecrackers are under local or provincial jurisdiction. At some point in my childhood, the laws here in Alberta changed. Suddenly we could no longer buy firecrackers in town. I remember being quite disappointed at the time.

 

[ShivaFan]

Namaste

There were a number of "Kumbh Mela" events in the US this year, of course there is no sacred specific location as in India but Ganga Jal was mixed in pools at various locations. Below is a picture from one of such "Kumbh Mela" is Southern California:

There were also Holi events as well. Both are now becoming common and expected events with large audience.

Om Namah Sivaya

 

[zenzero]

Friends,

Always found 'Diwali' to be a festival of LIGHTS but in reality it is a festival of SOUND which am not sure if such high decibel cracker sounds good for human ears and our environment. The report of Pune validates the idea too:

The noise pollution level across all the 15 areas of the city monitored by the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) crossed the maximum permissible limits during the three days of Diwali.

This time, the noise pollution at Koregaon Park, Kothrud, Pimpri and Swargate was relatively higher than last year. In 2012, the areas like Shivajinagar, Laxmi Road and Karve Road had recorded the highest noise levels with the maximum being recorded at Ahmednagar Road 97.7 dB.

Save planet EARTH!

Love &rgds

 

[Vinayaka]

There were also Holi events as well. Both are now becoming common and expected events with large audience.

Om Namah Sivaya

Indeed, and that's great. It really helps eliminate a certain stigma attached.

 

[Sb1995]

At Divali? I think that fireworks and firecrackers are under local or provincial jurisdiction. At some point in my childhood, the laws here in Alberta changed. Suddenly we could no longer buy firecrackers in town. I remember being quite disappointed at the time.

My uncles neighbour was a firework distributor. We had connections.

 

[Vinayaka]

Some more visible ones are ISKCON's Rathayatri routes, with police traffic support, the building of temples on rezoned land, outdoor cremation sites.

Today was my city's ISKCON Ratha yatra. I went over for the first time just to check it out. Unfortunately its a cool drizzly day here, and I'm sure it impacted the crowd. Still there were around 300 people. It's just finished raining about 3 inches and the grass parking lot for the tents was a mess. But the two police cruisers guiding the parade seemed to be having fun. I think next year, weather permitting, I'll go for most of it.

Hari Krishna

The Ganesha temple's chariot festival is 2 weeks today.

 

[Aupmanyav]

Fun time. Enjoy. Need more rain in Delhi, less in Uttarkhand.

 

[StarryNightshade]

Aup, In the west certain of our religious customs have been difficult to practice because of the ignorance in the west about them. So occasionally we have to be a bit political just to get the point across. Another one that still has a long way top go is the observance of religious holidays. Some employers may have gone to an idea of permitting days off for this, in an effort for staff moral, but for the most part it's not recognised.

I'm really hoping I can get time off work for Ganesha Chaturthi this year. On my time-off request application, I listed "religious observation" as the reason; but didn't specify.

A part of me was kinda afraid that it would have been denied if it was anything not associated with the Abrahamic faiths.