Indians do love celebrating things. This month we have a few more random holidays.
Sunday was "friendship day". Not a holiday but everyone went around to everyone else in the office on Friday AND Monday and said "happy friendship day". They might as well have said - happy day that gives me an excuse to put off working.
Today is Raksha Bandhan; the brother/sister festival. This is a Hindu festival but like most (in my non-official survey) seems to be celebrated by some people but not all and not only by Hindus. We have about 7 (out of 25) people working today. There are so many of these pseudo-holidays that we only have 5 official holidays in our office and then people get 5 floating holidays to take off the days that they celebrate.
From what I know of this holiday brothers and sisters tie a red string on each others wrist which is a symbol of protection. You may notice an Indian person with a red string on their wrist from time to time; for men it is on the right wrist and women the left...or vice versa...but I do know that they are opposite wrists; I've asked a bunch of people and no one knows why it is that way, it just is. I had one on my wrist from last divali but it fell off some time this summer. Usually I see them more on men, I guess all the sisters put the strings on the brothers but the brothers not so much on the sisters. Hmmm, tomorrow I'll check out everyone's wrists.
Oh and this holiday is also an excuse to buy lots of candies, the candy shops...sweet shops here...have set up extra tables to sell extra sweets. I personally find the Indian sweets waaay too sweet - they are pretty much pure sugar - so I hope that none make it in to the office this time because I really offend people when I say no thanks but either that or I toss it out.
Next Friday is apparently Lord Krishna's birthday and Sunday is Independence day so it will be a long weekend of lots of celebrating various and sundry things.
So in honor of the brother/sister holiday thingy I say Hi! to my brothers and sisters from afar :)
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1 comment:
and Hi back at you
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