{"id":272,"date":"2022-12-12T19:38:26","date_gmt":"2022-12-12T19:38:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/lotus\/?p=272"},"modified":"2025-11-16T01:30:28","modified_gmt":"2025-11-16T01:30:28","slug":"diwali-the-festival-of-lights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/lotus\/2022\/12\/12\/diwali-the-festival-of-lights\/","title":{"rendered":"DIWALI: THE FESTIVAL OF LIGHTS"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n
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BY SAIGOPAL RANGARAJ \u201823<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Diwali, widely known as the \u201cfestival of lights\u201d, is a religious festival celebrated by Hindus, Jains, Sikhs, as well as many Buddhists across the world. The word Diwali is derived from the Sanskrit word deepavali, which translates to a \u201crow of lights”. Diwali falls sometime in October or November each year, with the specific day being determined by the Indian lunisolar calendar. Diwali was celebrated on the 24th of October this year, with festivities occurring in the weeks immediately preceding and following that date. Despite common associations with fireworks, lamps, and a celebration of the triumph of light over darkness, the manner in which Diwali is celebrated varies greatly across communities and religions with different deities being honored on this day. It would be remiss to not note that there are also countless other people who view Diwali as a secular holiday.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Despite vast variations in how it is celebrated, this festival brings together people across the world. On campus, Diwali was celebrated by holding both a pooja (prayer) at Shove Chapel where students in the Hindu Student Association conducted an aarti (a prayer where a flame is offered to a deity), while the South Asian Student Association held a Diwali celebration in Bemis hall. The Diwali festivities featured many popular Bollywood tunes, South Asian food and desserts, as well as mehndi designs. These events provided a space for students with shared identities to come together and celebrate a space that represents their shared backgrounds.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The importance of celebrating events like Diwali cannot be understated at predominantly white institutions (PWIs) such as CC where only a small minority of the student body identifies with the South Asian identity. Having intentional spaces to share, celebrate, and reconnect with their identities allows for students at CC to feel welcome and at home despite being half a world away. Zoraiz Zafar \u201824, who typically does not celebrate Diwali at home in Pakistan, attended the SASA event as he wanted to connect with other South Asian students and find community at CC. He said that the event was \u201creally meaningful\u201d and that he \u201chad no idea that there were so many South Asian students\u201d.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Despite the positive role that festivals like Diwali play in making people feel welcome, they also risk reinforcing practices of harm that are employed in their home countries. In 2019, the South Asian community at CC chose to not celebrate Diwali due to the role that the festival plays in reproducing caste and religious hierarchies. Balancing the positive aspects of community and inclusivity that these festivals may provide, with some of their problematic histories is a challenge that all diaspora communities have to contend with. In the long term, campuses that foster spaces that promote cultural events are more likely to welcome students from more diverse backgrounds, however, it is crucial that we are intentional in acknowledging how these events have been used to discriminate in the past. To that end, we should ensure that there is more awareness about these festivals and the baggage that they come with to ensure that we are providing a welcoming space to all students, while ensuring that we do not import the hierarchies and discrimination that may accompany them.<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BY SAIGOPAL RANGARAJ \u201823 Diwali, widely known as the \u201cfestival of lights\u201d, is a religious festival celebrated by Hindus, Jains, Sikhs, as well as many Buddhists across the world. The word Diwali is derived from the Sanskrit word deepavali, which translates to a \u201crow of lights”. Diwali falls sometime in October or November each year, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1825,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2022-2023"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/lotus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/lotus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/lotus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/lotus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1825"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/lotus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=272"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/lotus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":336,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/lotus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272\/revisions\/336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/lotus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/lotus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/lotus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}