On one of the darkest weekends of the year, a festive air in Hanover fended off the gloom.
Around 200 community members gathered for an evening of Diwali festivities organized by Dartmouth’s Hindu student group, Shanti, on Saturday.
The evening began with a puja, or Hindu worship ritual, in Rollins Chapel. As devotees crossed into the nave, passing beneath bright orange garlands of marigolds, they were invited to help light the hundreds of candles placed around the church.
Although the reasons to celebrate differ across the wide range of South Asian religions and non-religious people who observe the holiday, Anagh Shukla, Dartmouth ‘28 and Shanti member, said one theme emerges: The celebration of light over darkness.
Every autumn, the main day of this five-day festival falls on the night of the New Moon, when the moon’s position in the sky offers the least moonlight possible. “It is on this dark day that we light a lamp because light shines through,” said Shukla.
This year, the holiday also began three days after the U.S. midterm elections. Just as Diwali commemorates fresh starts and a sense of renewal, the impending shifts in governmental power mark a dramatic political reset for the country.
As people shuffled out of the glowing church interior toward the candles and sparklers lighting up the Dartmouth Green, Diksha Kumar and Arushi Mittal, first-year graduate students at the Tuck School of Business, said that new beginnings were on their minds this Diwali.
“I'm feeling very hopeful. I've been in a great mood since Tuesday,” said Mittal. “And, you know, the festive season too… Everything is just, it's a good time.”
Although Kumar is a Canadian citizen, she echoed her friend’s optimism. “Of course, I'm not partaking in the elections, but I live here right now, and I'm impacted by the… local choices that are made by government,” she said. “I also come from a country that is also very closely connected to the States. So I think it's great that people are getting their voice heard.”
As thousands of tiny plastic flames flickered around sophomore Jiya Mutyali’s shoes, she reflected on the diverse array of backgrounds represented by Tuesday’s winners.
“I'd never really seen a lot of Indians or Indian Americans or South Asians in politics as much as I did this year, and it was really inspiring,” she said. “Especially in a time where there's been so much anti-Asian rhetoric… [I]t's amazing to see that our community is still able to really persist and show that we do belong here, and we're just as American as anyone else.”
While her peer Ananya Srinivasan, a first-year undergraduate from Belmont Mass., was also pleased to see her own cultural background shared by several newly-elected officials, she said she doesn’t personally link Diwali to political change.
“It's more of a coming together through culture,” said Srinivasan. “So no matter what you think politically, it's a way to come together as a community.”
Following the light display, a sea of people — dotted with shimmering fabrics and humming with holiday spirit — returned to the chapel for a program of lively song and dance, before departing with dinner boxes home-cooked by community volunteers.
