Little Diwali in South India today and the main celebrations tomorrow.
Posts Tagged ‘Diwali’
Diwali 2016
October 29, 2016This is not a NASA image of India on Diwali night
October 23, 2014It is doing the rounds again purporting to be a NASA image of India on Diwali night. It surfaces every year at Diwali time. It is a composite image and the coloured lights only represent different times between 1992 and 2003.
I just repeat what I wrote two years ago.
It is indeed from NASA, it is from space and it is at night. But it is not on a Diwali night and is actually a composite picture of night illumination over many years to try and show population increase. Even the colours are not real. It was circulated widely at this time last year as well. But as Robert Johnson of Business Insider points out:
The photo is an overlay of shots highlighting India’s burgeoning population over several years. The white lights were the only illumination visible before 1992. The blue lights appeared in 1992. The green lights in 1998. And the red lights appeared in 2003.
Current speculation suggests the lights are a result of the Hindu celebration Diwali, or the celebration of lights, held from mid-October to mid-November, but NASA was unable to confirm what time of year the shots were taken.
…. NASA says there are no more recent versions available.
Composite NASA image of India’s population development between 1992 and 2003. Blue is lights which appeared in 1992, green in 1998 and red in 2003. – image ngdc.noaa.gov
Diwali greetings
October 22, 201423rd October 2014
Shubh Diwali
November 2, 2013It is that time of year again. Diwali is celebrated this year on 2nd November in the South and on 3rd November in North India.
For Indians and the Indian diaspora it is the biggest festival of the year. For the children, the excitement is unbearable and the anticipation is sublime.
A time for Presents. New clothes. Lights. Fireworks. Nuts. Sweets galore. And for the young men (mainly) there a session of teen patte (three-card brag) with a modicum of alcohol through the night. And the whiff of bhang is not unkown.
If there was any religious significance to the day it has long since gone (though it may still seem faintly religious on the surface). It is also the time for corporate gift giving in a very big way. Suppliers to customers. Petitioners to politicians. Litigants to the legal fraternity. Tenants to landlords. Patients to their doctors. Giving thanks in advance (call it relationship building to be kind or you could call it a form of social bribery) for the year to come.
But within the family or feudal unit it is different. Here there are new clothes, sweets and money and presents. From parents to children, From the head of the family to the servants. From the zamindars to the tenant farmers. From the masters to the serfs. At every household the local artisans and service providers will call to receive their baksheesh. The newspaper guy, the electrician, the plumber, the carpenter, the cable guy, the vegetable hawker and even the beat policeman. (And you can be sure that the receivers compare notes about the generosity of the various households).
You may give little if you cannot afford more, but to refuse to give baksheesh is most unseemly and beyond the pale.
But it is generally a time of goodwill – and I reckon the goodwill level is about 10% higher than the long -term average. (Which of course begs the question as to when the goodwill is lower than average?).
A Happy Diwali to you all.
Diwali lights are not visible from space
December 6, 2012I have posted earlier about the composite image from 2003 but taken over many years and which has purported to be an image of India during Diwali but which was not.
Now a real image actually taken of South Asia on Diwali night (November 12th/13th) this year has been released by NASA and they write: “In reality, any extra light produced during Diwali is so subtle that it is likely imperceptible when observed from space”.
Every fall, Hindus around the world light lamps, candles, and firecrackers as part of a five-day festival known as Diwali. The celebration, which has roots as a harvest festival, usually falls between mid-October and mid-November. In 2012, it began on November 11.
On November 12, 2012, the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on the Suomi NPP satellite captured this nighttime view of southern Asia. The image is based on data collected by the VIIRS “day-night band,” which detects light in a range of wavelengths from green to near-infrared. The image has been brightened to make the city lights easier to distinguish.
Most of the bright areas are cities and towns in India, the country with the world’s largest Hindu population. India is home to more than 1.2 billion people and has 30 cities with populations over 1 million. (For comparison, China has 62 cities with more than 1 million residents and the United States has 9). Cities in Bangladesh, Nepal, and Pakistan are also visible near the edges of the image.
An image that claims to show the region lit for Diwali has been circulating on social media websites and the Internet in recent years. In fact, it does not show what it claims. That image, based on data from the Operational Linescan System flown on U.S. Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) satellites, is a color-composite created in 2003 by NOAA scientist Chris Elvidge to highlight population growth over time. In that image, white areas show city lights that were visible prior to 1992, while blue, green, and red shades indicate city lights that became visible in 1992, 1998, and 2003 respectively.
In reality, any extra light produced during Diwali is so subtle that it is likely imperceptible when observed from space.
The India “Diwali night” photograph – that wasn’t
November 23, 2012I received this 5 times by email.
The picture purports to be from NASA of Diwali night as seen from space. (This year Diwali was on 13th November).
It is indeed from NASA, it is from space and it is at night. But it is not on a Diwali night and is actually a composite picture of night illumination over many years to try and show population increase. Even the colours are not real. It was circulated widely at this time last year as well. But as Robert Johnson of Business Insider points out:
The photo is an overlay of shots highlighting India’s burgeoning population over several years. The white lights were the only illumination visible before 1992. The blue lights appeared in 1992. The green lights in 1998. And the red lights appeared in 2003.
Current speculation suggests the lights are a result of the Hindu celebration Diwali, or the celebration of lights, held from mid-October to mid-November, but NASA was unable to confirm what time of year the shots were taken.
…. NASA says there are no more recent versions available.
India composite – image ngdc.noaa.gov
Diwali
November 4, 2010
Diwali - The Festival of Lights: image wikimedia
Shubh Diwali
This year Diwali falls on November 5th.
The date is determined by the Hindu lunar calendar and there is no connection with Guy Fawkes.
According to Hindu calculations, Diwali falls on the 15th day of the dark fortnight in the auspicious Hindu month of Kartik (the month of October/November). This Diwali day falls on the amavasya or the no-moon day. Diwali comes 20 days after the popular festival of Dussehra or Vijaya Dashmi.
A Happy Diwali to all.
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