Indian festival of lights celebrated at USU
The Indian Student Association put on the annual Diwali event Saturday in the Taggart Student Center Ballroom. The event included a full-course buffet with a planned program of music, dancing and cultural celebration.
Diwali, also referred to as The Festival of Lights, is a Hindu festival celebrated widely among Indian culture. John Manoha, Indian Student Association President, said the event is the celebration of the victory of good over evil, marking the return of a religious king who was exiled from his kingdom.
Lights are an important part of the festival because they hold significance to Indian culture. At the beginning of events in India, lights are used both physically and symbolically to take away the darkness. Diwali celebrates this tradition, Manoha said. The celebration in India begins with fireworks and focuses on different types of food and dance. The purpose of the event is to share Indian culture with others, he said.
“From my personal standpoint, under the name of Diwali, we are sharing our culture, portraying our traditions and showing people what we are about back in India,” Manoha said. “The Diwali celebration at Utah State is a time for Indian students to come together and share our cultural traditions with domestic people here in Cache Valley and portray what it means to be Indian.”
“Geographically there are a lot of differences,” said Lalitha Chilakamarrie, a graduate student studying management information systems. “I come from Hyderabad in southern India, which is hot and tropical. Here it snows a majority of the year, which makes life a little bit difficult for me. I find most everything the same except that in other places, all of the shopping malls close at 10 p.m. or later. Here in Logan everything closes around 7 p.m. Apart from that, everything is similar to home. The people are very nice, very helpful. I’m liking everything here.”
After graduating with her master’s degree, Chilakamarri plans to stay in Utah with her husband and find work with an international company.
At the event Indian students and guests from the community were dressed in traditional Indian clothing. At the commencement of the celebration, a lamp lighting was held for symbolic purposes, dinner was served and students put on a program of traditional music and dance.
Rajee Turie, a management information systems graduate student, is a classically trained Bharata Nateyam dancer.
“Dance is showcased as an important part of Indian tradition because different styles of dance identify with different parts of the country,” Turie said. “In India there are more than 15 types of classical dances, and each state has their own particular style.”
Diwali is an important time for the Indian Student Association to represent their country through their traditions and open the minds of others to explore India. The festival is about sharing cultures, Manoha said. Tickets to the event were $17 and included a full-course meal of traditional cuisine. It also offered a quintessentially Indian program which explored typical Indian tradition.
“The only struggle we had with planning and executing the event was with the ticket price, so this year we made a two-for-one deal,” Manoha said. “An international student who brought a domestic student was allowed two tickets for the price of one. The purpose of this and the entire event was to promote diversity and make friendships within different cultures.”
–courtney.kearns@aggiemail.usu.edu
Twitter: @courtykearns