The Daily Free Press: Diwali celebrations light up the Boston community
Excerpt from The Daily Free Press | By: Tavishi Chattopadhyay | November 3, 2024 | Photo: Sydney Roth / DFP Photographer
Community leaders and college campuses across Boston hosted Diwali events this past weekend to celebrate the holiday and promote cultural education.
Diwali, also known as Deepavali or the Hindu “Festival of Lights,” is a five-day celebration honoring the triumph of good over evil and is one of South Asia’s most widely celebrated holidays. This year, the most important day of the Hindu celebration of Diwali fell on Oct. 31, and the Sikh celebration fell on Nov. 1.
The Massachusetts State House hosted its Diwali celebration on Oct. 22. The celebration included speeches from both Massachusetts Senate President Karen Spilka and House Speaker Ron Mariano, along with the lighting of oil lamps called diyas and explanations of Diwali traditions.
Neela Gandhi, president of the United India Association of New England, attended the celebration and said it was “great to see” Diwali celebrated at the State House.
For many South Asian people residing in Boston, Diwali events typically consist of community gatherings meant to allow the community to experience their culture. Gandhi spoke about how the UIANE helped accomplish this.
“Our association was actually founded in 1984 to try and keep this culture alive and so that the children growing up in the country could know the meaning of Diwali,” Gandhi said.
On Friday, BU’s Center for Computing and Data Sciences hosted a Diwali celebration, which was free for all BU students.
The celebration was organized after Tanima Chatterjee, clinical assistant professor of computing and data sciences at BU, suggested it to the event-planning committee. Because Diwali is celebrated by many different cultures, Chatterjee said she wanted the event to foster inclusion across backgrounds.
“It’s not just about the culture,” Chatterjee said. “It’s also about how beautifully you can celebrate that particular event. The whole idea is to celebrate different cultures, eventually, so that we can help students feel a sense of belonging no matter where they come from.”