Readers share how they spent festival of lights
I have lived in the Algarve for the last two years, so it was lovely to come home with the diyas (oil lamps) lit in the hallway, and the rangoli (beautiful designs using bright colours) already put out by my mum. Since Tuesday, we’ve been praying together in the evenings. The first day of celebrations begin with Dhanteras, which was marked with Laxmi Pooja to the goddess of health and wealth to usher in prosperity for the year to come. This day always stands out to me as we wash coins and silver collected over the years: the highlight is seeing a British Indian rupee from the 1920s with King George V and inscriptions in Hindi, Urdu and English. It reminds me of how long my family has been holding and washing this little pot of coins – a history that goes across India, Uganda and the UK, and is lovingly looked after every year.
