The weekend was filled with celebrations for the Hindu festival of Diwali, or Deepavali for many Redhawks.
“Diwali is the festival of lights,” sophomore Samriddhi Parashar said. “Basically, all throughout India, we celebrate it because, well, in my family, there’s another festival called Dussehra where Ravana, who’s a demon king, he’s killed by Rama. And Diwali is celebrated because it’s when Rama comes back home from his 14 years in exile and it’s supposed to be really dark, so they just light diyas, aka lamps, to light the way back and just to celebrate.”
One of the most popular ways to celebrate the festival of Diwali is to light fireworks.
“So, yesterday, my mom did puja, which is ideally the religious ceremony stuff in Hinduism,” sophomore Mahi Kosuri said. “And then in the evening, I went over to my cousin’s house; we did some light fireworks because we can’t have loud ones.”
Many students also take Diwali as an opportunity to relax and spend time with loved ones, in addition to the religious aspects of the festival.
“[Diwali’s] so fun, festival-like,” sophomore Himasri Marigidda said. “It’s the time where we meet our family and then get like a break from everything.”
Some students also take Diwali as an opportunity to attend parties and celebrate with friends and family alike.
“I went to the temple with my family and I went to a couple parties, too,” sophomore Sahana Sethuraman said. “My favorite part is the lamps that we light and the sparklers, doing sparklers with my friends and family.”
Lighting fireworks is not traditionally part of Diwali, which focused on lighting small clay lamps called diyas; rather fireworks or firecrackers were adopted by celebrants of the festival.
“I know that [fireworks are] not a cultural thing,” Kosuri said. “It’s something we’ve adopted and I feel like the Rama and Ravana story and the fireworks go hand in hand with each other and that’s really fun.”