Diwali, one of the most celebrated Hindu holidays around the world, will get its recognition at Elon University for the second year out in the Numen Lumen Pavilion Nov. 5.
Interns in the Truitt Center for Religious Life and Assistant Chaplain Adam Miller-Stubbendick are putting this festival of lights together. Anyone on campus can take part, no matter if they are a Hindu student or just want to learn more about a culture different from their own.
The interns are still in the planning process, but there is a lot they already know about what the celebration will look like.
“We are mirroring it a lot after last year’s celebration,” said junior Danielle Biggs, a Spirituality and the Arts intern. “We’ll have an authentic Hindu prayer led by one of the sophomore students and one the freshmen students who are of Hindu faith and they will teach the audience how to say the prayer.”
The Truitt Center members strive to make the event both culturally informative and fun.
“We will jump into a dance performance from the Naazare dance team from NC State and they’re traveling all the way here to perform,” Biggs said. “We’ll have presentations from Elon faculty that are of Hindu faith or that study Indian culture.”
Naazare is NC State’s Bollywood fusion dance team that combines traditional Indian dance forms with modern, western styles. Opal Patel, a senior student at Elon, dances both for Elon’s Finest team and Naazare.
“The team I'm on, NCSU Nazaare, is a fusion dance team,” Patel said. “We do everything like Bollywood dance, Bhangra, hip-hop and classical Indian dance forms including Kathak and Bharatnatyam. I'm really excited to see people come out to learn and celebrate Diwali, the Truitt Center had some great things planned out for their event as well as some yummy food.”
The three event planners have not decided which foods will be offered yet, but since there is not a main Diwali dish, there will be an assortment of Indian food. The planners are also still figuring out if restaurants will cater or if students can bring in various dishes to serve. Typically, lots of sweets are eaten over the holiday, which includes an Indian sweet meat called mithai, among other foods.
People coming to celebrate can also get Henna tattoos and participate in Rangoli art, which is traditional folk art from India that usually incorporates very bright colors and is made as a collaborative effort on living room floors.
“It’s really just an interactive event where people can actively engage in asking questions and participating with the dance and learning a dance demonstration and learning all about Diwali and the festival of lights,” Biggs said.
More than anything, the purpose of the Diwali celebration is to let students who might normally not know anything about Indian holidays understand its purpose. There will even be luminaries both inside and outside to reinforce Diwali’s main theme: the festival of lights.
“The main purpose is to shut out the darkness and bring in the light,” Biggs said.