Just last night there was a Diwali celebration on the street outside our house. It’s basically this long parade with banging drums, dancing and fireworks.

Diwali is a Hindu celebration of the return of the Hindu god Rama after his 14 year exile from someplace that I’m not familiar with. Moreover, Ram defeats Ravana, who so happens to be the King of Sri Lanka. So, potentially a bit touchy that you’re celebrating the killing of Sri Lanka’s king. 

You know the kind of drum in Lord of the Rings when the gremlins come up with their cave troll in the Mines of Moria? That kind of drum. THUMP THUMP THUMP. Up from the deep.

Anyways, as I stumbled out of bed at 3am in the morning, I was mildly annoyed that these Hindus would have the gall to began a beating, bashing, banging procession of loud discordant noise. However, I was really annoyed that they had disrupted my normal midnight pee spot in the private garden in front of our house. How’s a man to whip it out in the “bright daylight” (thank you, fireworks and gigantic sparkler things) of 3am Colombo when there are three hundred Sri Lankans outside his door?

Disrupted pee spots aside, more culturally interesting about this Diwali celebration is that for some reason in Sri Lanka the Hindus celebrate Diwali with a icon of Buddha and a whole bunch of Buddhists flags, which is totally strange to Sheela and I, who have never seen the two religions conflated in such a manner.

My conclusion: A great holiday and “festival of lights” for the everyday insomniac and night creature. Not so great for normal sleep patterns.