MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
Much of the world is preparing for the new year with fireworks. In the Indian port city of Mumbai, some people also burn an effigy of the year that just passed. NPR's Diaa Hadid went out to meet a few of them.
DIAA HADID, BYLINE: They call him the old man. He represents the old year. You can find him around Mumbai, like this one, sprawled on a plastic chair on a roadside.
So I am sitting next to an old man. That's what he's called. And residents here, they make them. They stitch them, they stuff them. And on New Year's Eve, they will burn them. And this is a way of getting rid of the old and bringing in the new.
This old man's head is a cloth-stuffed plastic bag. His stuffed legs are sprawled out. They risk getting crunched by passing scooters.
(SOUNDBITE OF SCOOTER BEEPING)
HADID: Ten-year-old Kenan (ph) and his buddies made this old man.
(SOUNDBITE OF COINS JINGLING)
HADID: They shake plastic piggy banks. And Kenan says...
KENAN: We stand on the road. And people who look, how we made the old man, they put money in the box.
HADID: So the old man is a moneymaker. He's also the star of the local street party.
KENAN: We buy chips. And, like, we sit down and we watch him burn.
HADID: The origin of the old man tradition, according to cultural historians, may have come with the Portuguese Catholics who ruled over this part of India for hundreds of years. But Kenan, a Christian, tells me it's for everyone now.
KENAN: Some of our friends who are Muslims and Hindus, they come to help.
HADID: In fact, one of Kenan's Hindu friends saves all his unused firecrackers from Diwali, the festival of light.
KENAN: To put in the old man. So, like, when we light it, it bursts.
HADID: Across town, another old man hangs off a pylon outside a slum. Siddharth Gaikwad (ph) is a hospital assistant. He made this old man. Gaikwad gestures to the rubble that separates the slum from the highway.
SIDDHARTH GAIKWAD: (Non-English language spoken).
HADID: He says, "we gather here on New Year's Eve. We share food, blast music, have a cake. And at midnight..."
GAIKWAD: (Non-English language spoken).
HADID: "We burn the old man." If the old man is a safety hazard of sorts, he also spotlights how India's many communities come together for a party. And there's lots of those because India celebrates quite a few New Years.
NARESH FERNANDES: Oh, well, at least six or seven.
HADID: Naresh Fernandes is the editor of the news daily Scroll and writes books on Mumbai.
FERNANDES: There's Chinese New Year, the Bohra New Year. The Bohra is a sort of section of Muslims. Tamil New Year. And then there's the Parsi-Irani New Year, too.
HADID: There are many more, Fernandes says. And that's because India is a mosaic of ethnic and religious groups, each who keep their own calendar. They literally measure time differently. So one of India's most popular almanacs marks all these celebrations. It's called Kalnirnay. Shakti Salgaokar is the executive director. When I ask what New Year's Day she celebrates, she says, well...
SHAKTI SALGAOKAR: We celebrate everything, basically. That's the best thing about being Indian.
HADID: Salgaokar is an ethnic Marathi from the western state of Maharashtra. She celebrates the Maharashtra New Year. It's called...
SALGAOKAR: Gudi Padwa. So Maharashtrians raise a beautiful stick with a silk cloth tied at the end, covered with a silver tumbler on top. And it's decorated with garlands and sweets.
HADID: Salgaokar's husband is from India's tiny Zoroastrian community. They originate from Iran. Their New Year is called Nowruz, so they celebrate that.
SALGAOKAR: And because I'm a businesswoman, 31st March in India is where the financial year changes, so I celebrate that as well (laughter).
HADID: She says the almanac her company publishes, with all those joyous days, is a reminder that...
SALGAOKAR: What we need right now is for each community to celebrate each other.
HADID: For the past decade, India has been dominated by Hindu nationalists. And since they came to power, there's been increasing attacks on India's large Muslim minority, against Christians, including this year over Christmas. Fernandes, the writer, is from India's Catholic community. For him, the many New Years...
FERNANDES: Reminds you of the huge diversity that exists in this country. And that's very difficult to stamp out.
HADID: And why stamp it out, he says, when all these celebrations are an excuse to party? And what could be more Indian than that?
Diaa Hadid, NPR News, Mumbai.
(SOUNDBITE OF STATIK SELEKTAH AND JACK HARLOW SONG, "TIME") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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