大象传媒

New Walk Museum was alive with the sound of memories being exchanged when a group of elderly Asian women were shown some of the Indian collections held by the city's museum service.

One of the organisers of the event, Hitesh Tanna, explained: "It is the culmination of three month's work with members of the East-West Community project.

"This is a group of women who meet at the Community Centre on Narborough Road."

Listen as 大象传媒 Leiceter's Ben Jackson pays a visit...

Fifteen visitors,颅 most of whom had never visited New Walk Museum and Art Gallery before, took part in the event.

Their memories of Diwali celebrations in days gone by were recorded as part of a chronicle of living history.

Their videoed and recorded stories will听 be transcribed in both English and Gujarati, and copies will be kept by both the museum and each participant.

The visitors were able to handle a number of ceremonial Gujarati and Indian artifacts used in celebrations including Diwali.

Says Hitesh, who is Leicester museums' outreach officer: "The aim is to record the dialogue between these visitors, which can be then passed on to future generations in order to keep these stories alive."

Rangoli

The women loved talking about how Diwali was celebrated when they lived in East Africa and India.

In particular they talked about the craft of Diwali, especially Rangoli decorations.

Rangoli is one of the great arts of India. It is a traditional way of decorating courtyards and walls of Indian houses, places of worship and sometimes eating places as well.

The powder of white stone, lime, rice flour and other cheap paste is used to draw intricate and very colourful patterns.

In Britain, as in India, the festival is a time for thoroughly spring-cleaning the home and for wearing new clothes and most importantly, decorating buildings with fancy lights.

Light and Life

Diwali is known as the 'festival of lights' because houses, shops, and public places are decorated with small earthenware oil lamps called diyas.

These lamps, which are traditionally fueled by mustard oil, are placed in rows in windows, doors and outside buildings to decorate them.

The lamps are lit to help the goddess Lakshmi find her way into people's homes.

They also celebrate one of the Diwali legends, which tells of the return of Rama and Sita to Rama's kingdom after fourteen years of exile.

In towns (and in Britain) electric lights are often used in Diwali displays.

In India oil lamps are often floated across the river Ganges - it is regarded as a good omen if the lamp manages to get all the way across.

Like grandparents everywhere the museum visitors complained that there grandchildren didn't celebrate as they used to.

"Granny knows best," was their considered conclusion!