After sunset, in an evening of half autumn, there was a great indù celebration in Barodi, some kilometers faraway from the capital of Bangladesh, Dhaka.
The exact name of the celebration is 'Rakher Upobash Festival', also said simply Candle Festival, and it is celebrated around the Shri Shri Lokenath Brahmachari Ashram temple.
Many pilgrims and people praying were here, taking some candles (called "pradip") in front of them, repeating a rhythmic song and reciting verses (reading words also from smartphone).
Atmosphere is dreamlike: candle fog and incense filled the air, and it is not easy to breathe. Clothes became full of a dense smell due to the oil of candles. I walked without shoes in a wet ground, to be connected to this sacred ground, and to respect divinity.
Sometimes a breeze made clean the dense air, but I prefer the soft and pictorial effect created by smoke:
Celebration is about the light and dark: it celebrates the winning of light/good against the dark/bad.
(switch to Italian language)
Oscurità splendente.
Come una cometa che muore abbracciando il sole, come il fiato del bosco, dove la vita si raccoglie, la linfa rallenta, per esplodere in un nuovo scatenarsi di brillanti foglie.
La speranza è una gioia sospesa, è una caduta che attende il rimbalzo, è un veliero che naviga tra i mondi.
Come nel Tao, l'oscurità brilla grazie alla luce.
(English translation)
Shining darkness.
Like a comet dying embracing the sun heat, like the breath of the forest, where life gathers, the lymph slows, to explode in a new unleashing of brilliant leaves.
Hope is a suspended joy, it is a fall that awaits the bounce, it is a ship sailing between worlds.
As in the Tao symbol, darkness shines thanks to the light.
Prayers were asking Shiva to take the light back to our world.
I needed to use long shutter time, because of the artificial lights created bad bands on the sensor. Solution has been to shot at 1/30 and also 1/15, to avoid this defect (known as flickering).
I had also an idea: to rotate my camera, to create the surreal and ethereal effect you can watch in following images (effect has been creating while shooting, so not in post production, neither with AI):
Here from a terrace: see order and caos together.
I felt this schema like a recall to the god: maybe they wished to attract his sight above them!
At some point, chorus stopped, and food was distributed to people suffering a fast of some days.
And at the end, people brought candles at the river, in a crowded procession between light, faces, darkness, silence and spirituality. We belonged to the same body, a strange and strong peace joined us:
Candles were left on water surface, like a gift to the god, together with the memories of all people who have left us:
Festival finished, but strong images, scents, humanity communion and peace will stay inside me forever.
Barodi, Bangladesh.
November 2024.
