navarathi night tour

soaking in all the culture here.
went on a tour with our ward a while ago to learn about indian festivals. there are lots of holidays going on, it's hard to keep them all straight. one thing is for sure...there's never a lack of something to do.



ate some traditional indian food. the place was a buffet, so you could try all sorts of interesting and yummy food.
we even got to go back into the kitchen to see how naan and tandoori chicken is made.

we visited two different hindu temples.

worshipping and festivities in full swing



even caught someone offering a coconut. later, at the indian culture night, i learned that the coconut is very sacred. they believe that the coconut is the sweetest form of natural juice and the white flesh inside represents how they want to be, clean and pure. it even has three eyes (ever wonder what that red dot in the middle of an indian woman's forehead means?), which is their form of having a spiritual eye. offerings like this are very common and are done to represent their commitment to being good.