Story: This story is about how my family celebrates the festival of Diwali which is the Hindi new year. We do this puuja which is like a ritualistic prayer, to this goddess Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth. She is a really powerful goddess and is associated with the new year because of that, and so we do these puujas in all of my parent’s offices since it is usually done in the workplace, and the people who my parents work with. We do that kind of a celebration and like we always go to the same restaurant and eat out after all of it to celebrate the new year. It’s also the same time everyone gets bonuses and stuff, so everyone is really happy. After all of that, people set off firecrackers as well.

Thoughts: The informant feels as if this is significant because though their family is Hindu, they don’t really do rituals very often – with the exceptions of Holi and Diwali and a few others. So it ended up being one of the few days their whole family got together and prayed, which is not something they do often. The spirit of the holiday is also very important to them.

Context: The context of this performance was over the phone, and I recorded the informant talking about their own folklore.

Analysis: I really enjoyed learning about this new part of my friend and their family. I had never known that they celebrated Diwali and in the way they did. I thought it was interesting that they always eat out at the same restaurant. It almost seems like a token for good luck or a way of avoiding bad luck, which would go along with the tendency of hoping and praying for good fortune or wealth.