NoradSanta.org's Santa tracker on Christmas Eve featured glimpses of Santa Claus as he traveled over South Asia en route to North America. Here are the relevant tweets that went out over Twitter.com/NoradSanta along with a video:
One of the 7 Wonders of the World, the Taj Mahal in India is a beautiful sight. It’s one of Dancer’s favorites :)
Santa's journey continues - he just zoomed through Dhaka, Bangladesh!
Santa is at the top of the world - Mt. Everest, which is 8,848 meters (29,029 ft) above sea level!
Earlier this afternoon, President Barack Obama lighted the official White House diya (lamp) to mark
the celebration of Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights this weekend. A local Hindu priest from Maryland recited the mantra as Obama lighted the lamp.
The president also signed the executive order re-establishing the President's Advisory Commission and White House
Initiative on Asian American and Pacific Islanders, a program which he hoped would improve the health, education, and economic status of AAPI
communities.
[NOTE: The ceremony marked the first-time that Diwali was observed in The White House itself. The Bush Administration traditionally celebrated Diwali in the Indian Treaty Room in the Old Executive Office Building, next to the main White House. And, yes, that's a different kind of Indian.]
"I think it's fitting that we
begin this work in the week leading up to the holiday of Diwali, the festival
of lights, when members of some of the world's greatest faiths celebrate the
triumph of good over evil," Obama said.
While this is a
time of rejoicing, it's also a time for reflection, when we remember those who
are less fortunate and renew our commitment to reach out to those in need.
While the significance of the
holiday for each faith varies, all of them mark it by gathering with family
members to pray and decorate the house and enjoy delicious food and sweet
treats. And in that spirit of celebration and contemplation, I am happy
to light the White House Diya, and wish you all a Happy Diwali, and a Saal
Mubarak.
Photos from the event are below:
President Obama lights the lamp to mark the celebration of Diwali.
President Obama addresses the audience before signing the AAPI executive order.
Penn Masala, the Hindi a capella group from UPenn, performed the song "Aicha" from their new album.
Kal Penn, who was appointed as the Associate Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement, helped putt the event together.
A Hindu priest from the Sri Siva Vishnu Temple in Maryland chanted the mantra as President Obama lighted the diya during the event.
It was fitting that I met G.T. Roa (above) on the holiday of Holi, the
Indian festival of color that celebrates a man’s survival thanks to his
unwavering devotion to God. On this day Hindus, especially adolescent boys,
throw or smear brightly colored, staining powders at anyone in the street.
Despite this, I left the safety of my ashram and ventured out for sweets.
Zig-zagging in order to avoid the boys, I bumped into G.T., a much-bemused
sadhu, who was color-free except for the orange uniform that all sadhus wear to
signify their life path. I thrust some sweets into his hands and said, “Happy
Holi!” He smiled: “Come and talk sometime. I will be sitting here. I am always
sitting here.”
The next day, there he was in the same exact spot. And he
was there every day until I left four weeks later.G.T. Roa is a man who left his job as a welder for the life of a
monk, renouncing worldly desires for a life of devotion to God. One day he told
his family he was going to the mountain – the Himalayas, refuge of seers
(rishis) and saints.
A few years ago we wrote about that tired annual ritual that accompanied the approach of Diwali: the flood of emails urging you to sign a petition calling for a US postal stamp honoring the festival. The petition had tens of thousands of signatures--from Amitabh Bachchan, Laloo Prasad Yadav, even Nehru-- but as a US postal official explained to us, the petition was essentially a hoax.
Since then, I haven't seen many of those emails but now the Hindu American Foundation is hoping to channel those old energies in more productive ways. They've sent a letter to the US Postal Service's Citizens Stamp Advisory Committee. The proposal notes the achievements of the Hindu community--motels owned, startups launched--while also explaining the symbolism of Diwali and equating its significance with Eid, Hanukkah and Christmas.
As HAF's Sheetal Shah wrote in an e-newsletter:
Just
as the USPS has recognized other faith communities by issuing official
stamps, it needs to do so for Hindu Americans. <snip>
According to USPS' website, accepting a proposal and issuing the
corresponding stamp takes up to three years - so that already puts us
in 2012. Furthermore, HAF will not be notified in advance as whether
our proposal has been accepted. All of us at the Foundation will be
waiting eagerly alongside you to hear good news from the USPS in 2012!
I'm thinking that a Diwali stamp could look great, but the trick would be to choose the right image. The safe bet would be on a lit diya (clay oil-lamp) but as a community Hindus need to consider something more aesthetically radical: perhaps a young girl in Hindu attire (new, of course) and bindi-fied, lighting a sparkler from a diya with one hand and eating a large, glistening sweetmeat with the other. My 2 paise.
------Original Message------
From: White House Press Office
Sent: Jan 25, 2009 6:41 PM
Subject: Statement by the President on the occasion of India Republic Day
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release January 25, 2009
STATEMENT BY THE PRESIDENT
Message on the occasion of India Republic Day
As the people of India and people of Indian origin in America and
around the world celebrate Republic Day on January 26, I send the
warmest greetings of the American people to the people of India.
Together, we celebrate our shared belief in democracy, liberty,
pluralism, and religious tolerance.
Our nations have built broad and vibrant partnerships in every field of
human endeavor. Our rapidly growing and deepening friendship with
India offers benefits to all the world⿿s citizens as our scientists
solve environmental challenges together, our doctors discover new
medicines, our engineers advance our societies, our entrepreneurs
generate prosperity, our educators lay the foundation for our future
generations, and our governments work together to advance peace,
prosperity, and stability around the globe.
It is our shared values that form the bedrock of a robust relationship
across peoples and governments. Those values and ideals provide the
strength that enables us to meet any challenge, particularly from those
who use violence to try to undermine our free and open societies. As
the Indian people celebrate Republic Day all across India, they should
know that they have no better friend and partner than the people of the
United States. It is in that spirit, that I also wish Prime Minister
Singh a quick recovery.
[UPDATE: Klum's explanation about her costume appended below]
Supermodel Heidi Klum throws a big Halloween party each year - a bash attended by many celebrities. Last year, she went dressed as a cat. This year, she chose to dress as the Hindu goddess Kali.
Hard to imagine it would be all right for her to dress as a god of any other religion. What do YOU think? Post your comments below.
In the photo below, you will see that her husband, the singer Seal is dressed in a costume that appears to be that of Angulimala ("garland of fingers"), a killer who was converted by the Buddha to a life of faith (or is that some figure associated with Kali?).
I am sometimes accused of stretching too far to find a South Asian angle on every story. But I didn't have to stretch too far to find a desi connection to Halloween, via an essay in Friday's New York Times op-ed section. A NYC friend, sharing the piece and a comment from another friend that "this brought me to tears", wrote: "I read the piece on my BB in the immigrant train (#7) and I, too, got tears in my eyes. Beautiful piece indeed!"
The essay is by Canadian writer Irshad Manji, who I just learned, is now in NYC (""Irshad Manji, the author of “The Trouble With Islam Today,” is the director of the Moral Courage Project at the Wagner Graduate School of Public Service at New York University.")
For me and my family, Oct. 31 has always been significant. Not because it’s Halloween, but because that’s the day we arrived as refugees to a free part of the world.
Beginning in August 1972, thousands of Asian entrepreneurs fled the East African country of Uganda after its dictator, Idi Amin, declared us to be bloodsuckers, seized our property and gave us three months to leave or die.
My family and I had only Ugandan passports, so we couldn’t escape to Britain or India like many of our neighbors. We’d been in Africa for two generations; my father and his brothers owned a car dealership in Uganda’s capital, Kampala. We didn’t know where to go, but we knew we couldn’t stay: Amin viciously enforced his 90-day deadline.
By the final week of October, the nations that would otherwise accept Ugandan exiles had exceeded their quotas. My family heard that Sweden and Canada might make room for a few more, and so out of desperation my mother, my sisters and I flew to Montreal, with Dad to follow. We had no guarantee that Canada would admit us.
We also had no guarantee that we’d meet an extraordinary immigration agent. But on Halloween 1972, we did.
For many folks in India, Oct. 31 is a landmark date for something else altogether. On that day in 1984, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated, setting off a wave of riots that killed thousands of Sikhs.
For three years now, we have been marking Diwali's appearances in the U.S. See our 2006 and 2007 collection of items about the "festival of lights" below.
Meanwhile, here is a roundup of some 2008 Diwali items:
Here's Yahoo's Diwali logo today on the main Yahoo.com page:
Ruchira Gupta, president of Apne Aap Women Worldwide, a New Delhi-based NGO that fights prostitution, talked about Diwali, among other issues at a White House non-Diwali ceremony. Her speech and press release are below. Her e-mail is ruchiragupta[at]gmail.com.
Here in NYC, it's the third year of Diwali being on the official City of New York "parking holiday" calendar. You can read about how it came to at my personal site in a page entitled "The NYC Diwali Parking Saga,"The graphic below is from NYC.gov: .
If we missed anything, let us know! Post your comments, please.
Thank you for the opportunity to share a few thoughts with you as we near the night of Diwali. In the coming days, Hindus, Sikhs, Jains and their friends of all faiths will gather across America and around the world to celebrate the Festival of Lights. Much has happened in the world since the last Diwali, and this is a wonderful opportunity to reflect on the year past and rededicate ourselves to spreading peace and tolerance in the coming year.
Last year, I wrote that Diwali’s celebration of the triumph of illumination over ignorance had a special meaning for me. At that time, traveling across America and meeting people of every spiritual and ethnic background showed me that there’s much more that unites us than divides us. Now, one year later, I believe this even more strongly.
Americans, despite our varied backgrounds, believe that all people are created equal, and that each person should be free to practice or not practice religion as they choose. These beliefs have faced challenges at home and abroad throughout history, but they are the beliefs our nation was founded on, and we always return to them.
If I’m elected President of the United States, I will work to renew America’s moral leadership in the world. This is our time to create change, and I believe that we can and must continue the fight against ignorance and intolerance. I hope you enjoy your celebration and renew your commitment to overcoming ignorance. I wish you all the best for a joyous Diwali.
A union which managed to add Eid ul-Fitr (or Id-ul-Fitr), the end of Ramadan, to its list of paid holidays finds itself in a controversy. From aNYT report by Steven Greenhouse:
The union that represents workers at a Tyson Foods poultry plant in Tennessee has negotiated a contract that substitutes a Muslim holiday for Labor Day as one of the eight paid holidays at the plant.
The provision, which was proposed by the Retail, Wholesale and
Department Store Union, has delighted the plant’s Somali workers, who
account for hundreds of its 1,200 employees. But it has infuriated many
outsiders, leading some to denounce Tyson and the union alike.
“You are a union that is proud of achieving a Muslim holiday and
prayer room?” one person wrote the union. “A union in the U.S.A., a
country based on Christianity. You call yourselves Americans? Have you
forgotten 9/11?”
Another wrote: “You had no right to drop Labor Day. Muslim employees
must integrate Labor Day into THEIR lives if they are going to live in
America.”
Stung by the criticism, Stuart Appelbaum, the union’s president,
said the decision was fully consistent with the spirit of Labor Day.
“We in the labor movement have always understood that unions are
only strong when we work to protect the dignity of all faiths, and that
includes Muslims,” said Mr. Appelbaum, who also serves as president of
the Jewish Labor Committee.
“What we negotiated was the will of the workers,” said Mr.
Appelbaum, who added that his was the first union to negotiate a paid
day off for a Muslim holiday and that he was sure Tyson would not be
the last employer to agree.
This article says this is the first union to negotiate a paid day off for a Muslim holiday in the U.S.
Recent Comments