In my home country Diwali is recognized as a public holiday. Much of what I know about Indian culture stems from the description of this holiday and the stories told around that time of year. There are also channels available that present Indian plays and Bollywood all day.
Growing up as a Catholic, the Bible would be the sacred religious text that I have been most exposed to in my life.I do have some relatives that follow Islam so I have been exposed to the Qur'an on occasion. While I do have some Indian heritage on my mother's side we were not exposed to a lot of Indian culture and we are not in regular contact with our distant relatives from India.
I have chosen to include the image entitled "Krishna Holds Up Mount Govardhan". This image stood out to me because it reminded me of the Titan Atlas in Greek mythology who was tasked with holding up the sky.
(Krishna Holds Up Mount Govardhan
Date: ca. 1590–95; present-day Pakistan, probably Lahore
How great that you know about the holiday of Diwali, Eaton! That won't be coming up until next Fall, but I will try to mention in the announcements some other Indian holidays as they come around in the calendar this semester. And the comparison between Krishna and Atlas is really fascinating: Krishna is more of a savior figure who gladly does this for the people... while poor Atlas is really not very happy at all with his job of holding up the heavens! It sounds like you will be able to make lots of good connections between the stories in this class and your own interests. I hope you will enjoy it!
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