保利的 拥抱 Asian Pacific Isl和er (API) parent affinity group hosted a Diwali celebration with 较低的学校 during community time on November 13 with guest speakers who shared the meaning 和 traditions of the holiday.

Diwali is the Indian festival of lights, usually lasting five days. One of the most popular festivals of Hinduism, Diwali symbolizes the spiritual “victory of light over darkness, 善战胜恶, 和 knowledge over ignorance.” The celebration this year began on November 14. 提前, Varun Shetty P’33 和 Nancy Bulalacao P’33 invited families to share photos of their Diwali traditions.

Bulalacao是 a co-founder 和 co-chair of 拥抱 API. “Along with being able to meaningfully celebrate these cultural events with the students, we seek to advocate for 和 unify the Poly API community, as well as ally with the other 拥抱 groups.”

“In celebration of Diwali,布拉拉索说, “we coordinated a program of short videos explaining the significance of the holiday, including a special read aloud, 和 featuring three artists, 塔瓦库玛, 雪莱巴尔 和 吉塔Citygirl, speaking on the specialness of the holiday.” 

Kimberly Davis-Rivizzigno P’35 welcomed 较低的学校 students 和 teachers to the livestreamed Diwali celebration, which included video presentations. 她介绍了 Shetty, who said, “Diwali is a very important celebration in India, a festival of lights.” He explained to the children that people light many c和les 和 wear bright clothes like the red kurta he wore. It is a time of much dancing, he said. 较低的学校 students were given a Rangoli pattern to decorate 和 a special Mango Lassi recipe to try at home.

Davis-Rivizzigno told the children that Bulalacao had arranged for three artists to talk about Diwali.

塔瓦库玛, 的作者 Immigrant Montana, recalled that as a child in India, he loved the firecrackers that were part of Diwali celebrations. He briefly told the children the origin story of Diwali, how King Rama was in exile for 14 years in the forest 和, when he returned to Ayodhya, the people celebrated by lighting rows of lamps. Kumar said he remembered his mother’s face “illuminated by the lights” of Diwali.

视觉艺术家 雪莱巴尔 was born in India 和 raised in Toronto, Canada, 和 now lives in New York City. “Indians have taken their traditions to other countries,” she said. Bahl shared her artwork including images of dancers like those seen in caves in India.

吉塔Citygirl, the founder of SALAAM, the first South Asian American theater, arts, 和 film company in the U.S., showed the children a “diya,” the small lamp that is used to light the Diwali celebration. But she noted, “You need the darkness. Without the dark times, you cannot see the light.”

Shetty returned to read aloud the book, Let’s Celebrate 5 Days of Diwali, a story of two children who traveled from Chicago for the Diwali celebration in India.

“拥抱 API looks forward to building on this event 和 making it a yearly celebration along with other Asian Pacific American cultural events,布拉拉考说.

谢蒂说,  “对我来说, it’s important to talk about Diwali because as new members of the Poly community we’re really excited to share some of the traditions within our family that we enjoy 和 value. Being able to talk openly 和 share this with others is so much fun for us.”