London: British Hindus celebrated a White Diwali amid unseasonal snowfall Tuesday, but refused to allow the chill to dampen spirits.

Snowflakes mixed with fireworks as up to two inches of snow settled in parts of Britain - a rare occurrence in October - and nighttime temperatures fell to minus four degrees Celsius in the eastern parts of the country.

Thousands of homes in Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire were left without power after the cold weather damaged high voltage cables.

But tens of thousands of Hindus poured out of their homes in Asian-inhabited areas of London and its suburbs to shop and eat out on lamp-lit high streets.

And a note of warmth was added by the Archbishop of Canterbury, the head of the Church of England, in his traditional Diwali message to the Hindu community.

“In both Christianity and Hinduism, we dedicate times of the year to the renewal of our lives and of our faith,” Rowan Williams said Tuesday.

“We seek to reflect on what has gone before and to reconnect with the light which lies within us and which is at the heart of all that is," he said.

“My hope for this year ahead is that in this spirit of looking to the light, we shall be able to find reconciliation where there has been division and hurt; to work for peace and the rejection of all resort to violence…” Williams added.

 

Source : ians