375 - 25th - Its Christmas!!!

Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 25th Dec'08

Christmas is undoubtedly one of the most celebrated and revered of all festivals round the world. People of all countries, races and religions celebrate and enjoy it with equal excitement.

This is my second Christmas in Mexico. Exactly a year back I was at the same place, same city. But unlike last time, when I spent the whole day lazing around in my hotel room, I decided to be a part of the excitement out in the city. I went to the downtown which was decorated so beautifully that you couldn't recognize that it is the same place. Right in the middle there was this huge Christmas tree, fully covered with lights of ten different colors. Shot from a distance had many other subjects in the frame, so I decided on this lateral angle.

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374 - 24th - Santa claus is coming to town

Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 24th Dec'08

Oh! You better watch out,
You better not cry,
You better not pout,
I'm telling you why:

Santa Claus is coming to town!

He's making a list,
He's checking it twice,
He's gonna find out
who's naughty or nice.

Santa Claus is coming to town!

He sees you when you're sleeping,
He knows when you're awake.
He knows when you've been bad or good,
So be good for goodness sake!

So...You better watch out,
You better not cry
You better not pout,
I'm telling you why.

Santa Claus is coming to town.

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373 - 23rd - The Nacimiento

Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 23rd Dec'08

Come Christmas and almost every house here in Mexico would have two things for sure - A Christmas tree and a Nacimiento. Everyone knows what a Christmas tree is, but most of you won't know what is a Nacimiento. Or you would be knowing but by a different name.

A Nacimiento is basically a small decoration through which the birth place of Jesus is presented. It typically consists of baby Jesus, some sheep lying around and a lot of hay. Sometimes people get more creative and make big houses and put some rain deers and Santas around the place (as you can see in the picture).

Must be really fun to create something like this. In India, we do almost the same thing on the festival of Krishna janmashtami, which is celebrated to mark the birthday of Lord Krishna. As a child, I always used to make something very similar with my friends, though with a different name - Jhanki.

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370 - 20th - The shining tree

Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 20th Dec'08

The entire city is drenched in the spirit of Christmas. You can see lights everywhere, on streets, inside houses; everywhere. I happened to visit a friend's house where his parents had extensive decorations set up for Christmas. There were tiny houses, small Santa Clause scattered everywhere and the garden covered with colorful lights.

After spending some time with the family I went out the garden to take some photos. This tree wrapped with a streak of colorful bulbs was looking magnificent against the dark night sky.

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350 - 30th - The christmas house

Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 30th Nov'08

It is almost Christmas time and the whole city is in the festive mood. You can see Christmas gifts at practically every single shop in the city. Christmas trees, house decorations, gift packs and scores of other things to buy.

This huge Christmas house was set up in a local mall in Puebla. You could see a big fat Santa sitting inside the house with sweets and gifts (seemed to be unreal). All you need is to pay 50 pesos to get inside the house and take a photo with the man of the hour :)

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342 - 22nd - The small pumpkins

Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 22nd Nov'08

It was Halloween time and the local markets were filled with pumpkins of all colors and sizes – from orange, white & green to small medium and large ones. You can see small pumpkin faces everywhere, in houses, in offices and in shops.

I bought one such small pumpkin and carved out a Halloween face out if it. I kept in my bedroom for some days before it rotted and I threw it away :)

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313 - 24th - Its Halloween

Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 24th Oct'08

Halloween is a week away but it's creepy signs are all over the city. You go to shops, malls, houses and even offices and you can see these pumpkin shaped ghost heads (Jack-o'-lanterns) in all different sizes scattered all over the place. Some are carved out of real pumpkins while some like in the picture above are made of plastic, porcelain or even clay. I found these two huge pumpkin heads at my friends house and I knew that they would make a nice picture.

BTW, I am planning to carve one out of a real pumpkin, that would be something new & fun and most of all, something I have never done before.

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224 - 27th - The wedding

Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 27th July'08

Last weekend we planned to visit a church in the downtown and when we reached there, we found that the church was all set to host a wedding. We could see impeccably dressed people ready to greet the blessed couple. As we reached the entrance of the church the bride was getting escorted inside. I took some shots which didnt come as good as expected due to bad light.

This one is my best among all I got. You can see a couple more at the below given links.
Photo - 1
Photo - 2

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9 - 25th - Merry Christmas

Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 25th Dec'07

Today being Christmas, I am posting this cute Santa doll displayed at the reception of my Hotel. I was waiting there to get my internet access key for the week when I noticed this small setup of dolls at the corner of the front-desk. Though there were beautiful Christmas trees, elegantly decorated hallways, but still I chose this "small Santa" to be my post for Christmas'07.

I sent the same photo my friends as the Christmas greeting. :)

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