| Folk Arts - Diwali in Seattle: The Joyous Traditions Continueby Joan Rabinowitz
India Association of Western Washington member Prem Kumar, Arun Somani, and friends are setting up signs and table in the hallway outside the auditorium of Ingraham High School. Rashmi is hanging decorations to make the auditorium festive and cheerful. They are preparing for the annual Diwali celebration, which will bring together over a thousand people to watch both adults and children perform Indian regional dances and music. This is one of many events which will take place over three weeks to celebrate Diwali.
Every year in the fall, Puget Sound’s Indian community comes together for Diwali. The community is made up of people from many different regions of India as well as from countries outside of India such as Pakistan and Fiji. Many of the regional groups put on events throughout the year that are specific to their group. Diwali is the one holiday which can be shared by everyone. “I think that all the other festivals have definite reasons for being celebrated,” Shantha Benegal explains. “For instance, Durga puja is Durga's festival, and Ganesh Chaturhti is Ganesh’s festival, and so on. Whereas Diwali is different. Different parts of India celebrate it for different reasons. I think that’s what makes it belong to everybody. It’s more secular and maybe that’s why it lends itself to community celebrations more than other festivals do. People who are not Hindus can celebrate it, because it is a time of one season ending and another season beginning. And it’s a time of jollity.”
Arun decorates a shrine to Laximi. “All is offered to the god. The red rice, the thread and some flowers.” Traditional Indian arts, such as rangoli and henna painting, are demonstrated at nearby tables. At another table, there is betel nut to chew and cardamon to cleanse the palette.
The public celebrations are held on weekend evenings and they are always crowded. Some people come to watch the performances, others to socialize. The dances, which come from all over India, tell the story of Diwali. Some dances depict the stories of the gods and offer the gods praise. Other performances describe the events of a Diwali day such as lighting of oil lamps. There are folk dances from Rajasthan, the Punjab, Gujarat; Kathak dance, Odissi dance and Bharata Natyam; Marati songs, Qawali singing, and tribal dances.
“The community here comes from different areas in India,” Prem explains. “They bring with them different types of artistic skills and art forms. So, we try to take advantage of that situation and put together a program that will give an opportunity to all of those people. It gives the community a feeling of togetherness. This is one of the few functions which brings in people from all parts, with all types of backgrounds, and it gives them a sense of common identity: they are together, they are doing thing at the same time and place, in their own way. So, it preserves their separateness, yet togetherness. That is one of the highlights of this festival.”
There are people of all ages here. Backstage, the mothers and teachers help the younger children get ready to perform. They work hard to prepare each year for this event, the mothers often driving forty or fifty miles to get to rehearsals. “The focus of the festival is usually to provide an outlet for local talent,” Shantha explains. “That’s the reason they celebrate in India, also in a community way. I think the older people who have had connections with India realize the importance of what they had and they don’t want their kids to miss that. The Diwali functions provide a link between the old country and the new country. The old culture and the new culture.”
Following the performance, the audience move to the cafeteria, where long tables are filled with traditional Diwali foods, such as cauliflower, cottage cheese and beans, and many sweets, such as gulab jam. Arun Somani recalls that in India, “it’s not uncommon to have eleven different kinds of sweets. Most of them are made of pure sugar. You crystallize sugar, and that’s offered to the gods.” “It’s a custom to exchange sweets and good wishes with neighbors,” says Samantha Benegal. “Even if you’ve made enemies with your neighbors, in Diwali time you are supposed to forget all this and then make friends again.”
After it is all over, people continue to congregate and talk. A group of young boys five to seven are excited after having just performed. High school and college students talk in small groups. “This is the only occasion the girls get to dress up, show off their clothes, jewelry,” one student observed. “Otherwise, they live in the American world. They were born and grew up here, most of them. This is like their culture is still alive. That’s the heritage if Indian people. They migrate from place to place, live in other countries, but keep their culture, their food, their language, with them. Which is nice. That’s part of it. Part of their life.”
The festivities continue the following day, when many people celebrate Diwali in their homes. Raghava Reddy is from Bangalore, in the state of Karnataka in South India. He and his family live in Seattle. They begin preparing food for Diwali several days in advance. Food is an important part of this holiday; food for the gods and food for friends and family. The women continue to cook in the kitchen as the guests arrive. “I’m making Prasadam,” says Lavanya, Raghava’s wife. “It’s made with butter, milk, raisins, cashew nuts. When we do a puja, we usually offer that to the god. It’s almost like milk pudding. And, whenever we do any worship to the god, we offer that first.”
The home celebration begins with a puja. “In that ceremony,” Prem Kumar explains, “you offer things like flowers and other items, sweets, grains, which all represent certain things to your gods and goddesses. Each family will celebrate in their own way, depending upon which god or goddess they believe in and worship.”
Nasima Arani, who is from Madras, and lives in Edmonds, leads the puja. “We are trying to perform puja for two gods,” he explains. “To start with, we do Ganesh Puja. We pray to him basically to invoke his blessing so the prayer will go smoothly. And then, after that is done, we pray to Goddess Laximi. She’s the goddess for giving wealth and well-being. So we seek her blessings. Then, her husband is Vishnu. He’s the protector of all mankind. So, we pray to him also, at the end.”
After the offerings of prayers and food have been made, it is time for everyone else to eat and visit. Platters of food, from samosas to sweets fill the dining room table. The atmosphere is informal; this is a happy gathering of friends. In the basement, children and adults work on rangoli; geometric patterns of various colors. “We teach them rangoli, to decorate the floors,” says one of the parents, “so that the Goddess of the Earth will be pleased with it and wealth and good health will come into the house. So, all the girls learn. It’s really mathematical. All the designs are. Rangoli, it means with colors.”
As the evening ends,family and friends wish each other well, and return to their homes. For some, this is the end of the holiday. For others, there are more festivities ahead; visits to other friends’ homes, or celebrating by dancing bhangra or garba, regional group dances from the Punjab and Gujerat. For all, the Diwali Festival will end soon, and it will be time to resume their lives in America.
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