Diwali Night aims to create a celebratory environment for students of all backgrounds

UNC’s Hindu YUVA is offering both students who traditionally celebrate Diwali and students less familiar with the holiday to join in the club’s Diwali Night on Friday.

The celebration of Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights, will include dance and musical performances from South Asian groups on campus, food catered by Chapel Hill restaurant Raaga and sparklers for attendees. 

Sophomore Millena Sivakumar, secretary of Hindu YUVA, said Diwali is her favorite holiday because of what it means to her and her family.

"Diwali is the festival of light, so it's a celebration of how good overcomes evil,” Sivakumar said. “It's celebrated in a lot of different religions and in different places all over South Asia, and it's basically a celebration of joy, prosperity and knowledge."

She said the holiday offers her family a chance to bond over the positive elements of Diwali that focus on good energy in life.

"Diwali is a time where my family comes together, and that's our biggest holiday where we have all our friends and relatives come over to our house,” Sivakumar said. “We have fireworks, we eat lots of great food and we wear lots of bright colors. Everything is based on light, and it has a lot of meaning to my family because it brings us together."

Senior Arvind Mallikarjunan, vice president of Hindu YUVA, said the club exhausts its budget each year in preparation for Diwali Night. 

Mallikarjunan said members of Hindu YUVA fall on a spectrum in their religious affiliation because some members are very orthodox, while others don’t come from a very religious background.

He said Diwali Night is an opportunity for people who celebrate the holiday to have a place on campus to interact with others.

"For anyone who's missing home or missing their culture, we want people to feel like they're in a safe space where they can remember the things they may have experienced as children, or maybe haven't and have seen in movies or things like that,” Mallikarjunan said. 

Sophomore Nikhil Rao said he plans to attend Diwali Night because he feels he has lost touch with his cultural roots, and he thinks the event will help him find them at UNC.

“I've found over the course of my time at Carolina so far that I've lost some of my cultural grounding in Indian customs, and I want to re-explore that part of myself,” Rao said.

Mallikarjunan said Diwali Night is not just for students who celebrate the holiday as part of their culture. He wants the event to be a chance for others to learn about the culture of the people who celebrate Diwali as well.

“For other students on campus who maybe don't have this sort of cultural background or cultural relationship, we're really looking for people to learn more about the culture and the people, and ultimately be a lot more open-minded to the things we do,” Mallikarjunan said. “In all reality, if we take out the religious context of this event, it's really a positive event and everybody can use that."

He said a lot of students who approach members of Hindu YUVA have the misconception that the event is only for people of South Asian descent, regardless of their religion. Mallikarjunan wants students to know anyone is welcome to celebrate Diwali Night.

"A lot of people think this event is just for Brown people, and it's not,” Mallikarjunan said. “It's for everybody to come and enjoy themselves, regardless of your skin tone of religious beliefs; it's really for you to just come and have a good time."

arts@dailytarheel.com