A Festival of Lights

For the past 30 minutes I have been trying to remember what I wanted to post. I saw the item in the newspaper as I was preparing to leave for work and then forgot it again. Then as I was starting to prepare a list of new reference books, I saw a The Handbook of Hindu Mythology by George M. Williams and remembered: Divali or Diwali. Why this and why now? Well, one of my colleagues, currently in India visiting relatives, was quite excited about being there during this time because of all the festivities. (No, she is not Hindu.) A quick check on Beliefnet retrieved an article from 1999, "The invisible religion." which is about Hinduism in America.