She grew up in India, from where Diwali, the festival of lights comes. It has always been her favourite festival and she longs for its preparations.
She has moved to many other countries and had to realise that all of them do not celebrate Diwali as they do in India. Then she moved to Fiji and to celebrate Diwali there. During the preparations in the weeks before Diwali, the author has the feeling that the Diwali of her childhood has returned. This does not only happen because the stores in Suva begin to sell traditional Diwali decoration and food, but also because of the special atmosphere. The author is invited to a party in the evening and everything there reminds her of the Indian culture. She realises that there is one important thing to be said about Fiji: this small island country is not only working to maintain the old traditions, but also trying to incorporate new and different ones into its culture. She is excited that the other women were also dressed specially for the Diwali festival, she thinks that everything is perfect. It is not a religious event and people that are not Hindus celebrate, too. The author is happy because after a long time, she isn’t the only one who is celebrating and therefore it is also more significant for her. She describes the day to be just like in India. The praying instruction on the radio which she follows is something that does not even occur in India. And in contrast to her past Diwalis in the States she is actually performing the prayers and not just doing them virtually. A few months later, her idea that celebration unites people is confirmed because of Christmas greetings in a Hindu Shop.
We see that the people in Fiji are open to the different festivities of the various religions in the country. It is not strange for them to celebrate a festivity of another religion. On the contrary, they have many different celebrations of various religions during the year. It seems like the Fijians are able to fuse the traditions of many religions together.
Another important point that comes up in the article is that people in Fiji are actually very open. The people in Fiji have different origins: some of them are Indian, like the author, or they are indigenous Fijians but there are also other ethnic groups. Consequently there are a lot of different cultures and traditions on this small Island.
They let each other take part in the festivities of different religions without excluding those which do not have the same religious believes. We think this is an important point because it shows the attitude of the different “ethnic groups” living in Fiji towards each other. The Indians in Fiji are a good example for this tolerant attitude because they let other people join their Diwali celebrations and also try to incorporate their traditions in Fiji’s culture. On the other hand we assume that they are also interested in participating in other religion’s festivities. So there is a lot of interaction between the different cultures and they like to share their own traditions and also learn about the others.
Celebrating together and sharing the joy of festivities like Diwali connects the people from different religions and brings them closer together. The important thing about these holidays isn’t just the fact that people learn about the different religious backgrounds. It also creates a positive atmosphere and enriches the every-day life of the insulars. More importantly, it also helps to reduce conflicts between the different races since in the past there were a lot of tension between the ethnic Indians and the indigenous Fijians. But now they show interest in one another’s cultures, which means they learn more from each other and therefore have more understanding for the different cultures. This leads to more tolerance between the cultures. Other opinions are accepted.
We can find more positive than negative aspects in this behaviour. For example, one can learn a lot about the mentalities of others, it also leads to more social cohesion and a better atmosphere in the country. But we think that the festivities might lose their original meaning. So we could understand if some religious people did not like the fact that others celebrate their holidays without knowing what the actual religious meaning of the rituals is.
If we look at Basel we see that there are hardly any religious festivities where people from different religious backgrounds celebrate together.to Basel, we hardly have any festivities with different religious backgrounds, which we celebrate all together. Maybe this is because in Basel we do have different religions, but most religions are practices by minorities. The majority is Christian. By contrast, there is not main religion in Fiji. Hence the locals naturally have more contact with other cultures. Another reason could be that we might be more reserved and do not want to have such an interaction with other religions. For example we and most people we know do not celebrate Hanukah. (Z.K., S.W., V.B.)
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