Diwali, and mosquitos

Yesterday was Diwali, the major annual Hindu holiday in India. It is the “festival of lights,” and gift giving, and eating/sharing traditional sweets. Lights, gifts….semblances of Christmas, and Chanukah. Though the origins are….different. I am fascinated by the celebratory similarities…at some point we must have all plagiarized the same rituals…(Jesse wanted to “celebrate” yesterday by eating Chinese food and seeing a Bollywood movie, the “traditional” activities of many Jewish people, on Christmas day.)

From Wikipedia:

Diwali involves the lighting of small clay lamps (diyas) filled with oil to signify the triumph of good over evil….Diwali commemorates the return of Lord Rama along with Sita and Lakshman from his fourteen year long exile and vanquishing the demon-king Ravana. In joyous celebration of the return of their king, the people of Ayodhya, the Capital of Rama, illuminated the kingdom with earthen diyas (oil lamps) and burst firecrackers.

Firecrackers went off all day; fireworks (organized and unorganized) went off all night. Pretty spectacular displays. The city gets smoky from all the things burning. But I have been told, and also read, that there are good side effects for this. Mosquitoes in India are more than just nuisances; they transmit dengue, malaria, and chikungunya (yet another awful mosquito-borne illness here). And the smoke and the noise and the haze from Diwalli fireworks supposedly decimate the mosquito population.