Today there’s a big festival in India – Diwali. It’s the Festival of Lights, and where my husband is from in Tamil Nadu, they honor Lakshmi, the Goddess of Wealth. I’m in India for Diwali this year! Today we’re shopping for sarees, and making and eating sweets. These are things you do to celebrate Diwali. You also set off deafening fireworks. Even at 2 a.m. We aren’t, but others are. Ahem.
One traditional decoration on Diwali is to set up rows of lights. And I have an obsession with lining up rows of things perfectly. It’s very strange. Like meditative. So no wonder Diwali is a favorite festival!
For Diwali in India, people will decorate their homes with diyas, which are little clay vessels that hold oil and a wick. You line them up or arrange them in a pretty circle, and light the wicks. Here’s an example from Wikipedia:
You can also use candleholders inspired by diyas, and burn small candles like tealights or votives in them.
Today I share a few Diwali candleholders. And even if you don’t celebrate Diwali, these are so pretty, don’t overlook them – I use the festive red, green and gold Diwali candleholders for Christmas decorating.
Here’s a lotus tealight holder from Collective Craft in India:
Right now you can order a variety of unique Indian style candleholders from Jaypore (yesterday I wore a block print tussar silk scarf from Jaypore – they have beautiful goods!). This one is stone with copper:
Here is a sterling silver and glass candle lamp from Jaypore:
The crackle effect in the glass casts interesting dancing shadows around the lantern.
This handcrafted brass lantern has a small oil wick lamp suspended by a parrot, also from Jaypore:
Today while wandering the shopping markets in the T Nagar neighborhood of Chennai, we found a guy with plain red clay and glazed clay diyas in a cart on the street:
We picked up a handful of nine glazed diyas for a grand total of 50 cents!