Diwali Festival lights up at Founders

As a young girl growing up in Delhi, the Diwali Festival was the equivalent of Christmas for Garima Datta, with lamps lit, brightly-coloured decorations hung around the home and a time to spread love and happiness.

Now with her own young daughter growing up in Nelson, Diwali, or the Festival of Lights, is a time to continue that tradition and share it with the wider community.

Diwali 2024 is being held on Saturday afternoon at Founders Heritage Park, bringing the community together to celebrate the victory of light over darkness and good over evil. It is the grand finale of the Indian festival season and the local Indian community have had several smaller festivals in the lead-up to Diwali.

Garima, who has the Delhi Supermart in Stoke, says that Diwali, like Christmas, is a time for gifts, decorations, food and celebration, but with a different history. It’s based on Hindu mythology where Diwali marks the day that Lord Rama, his wife Sita Devi and brother Lakshmana return to their homeland after 14 years in exile. To celebrate their return, the villagers cleaned their houses and lit oil lamps to light their path.

Today, Garima says Indian families still light lamps and also create colourful rangoli, which is an art form created on the floor or as a welcome mat at the entrance, using materials such as coloured powders, flowers, rice and lentils.

“We’re waiting for Diwali the whole year to unite people, spread love and happiness and distribute gifts. In India, it is massive. Everywhere is sweets and lighting and all the houses have lamps (diya). We make special sweets like gulab jamun, burfi and milk cake. To have it here, it’s a bit of home.

“My daughter doesn’t know about Diwali, so it’s important to show it to her because it’s part of her culture.”

More than 800 million people celebrate Diwali worldwide and last year about 3,000 people celebrated it in Nelson.

Experience India is organising the festival and expects 5,000 or more people this year. Festival goers will be able to taste an array of Indian vegetarian delicacies, experience temple rituals and have the opportunity of learning how to make rangoli. Even more market stalls than last year will be offering Indian spices, clothing and jewellery, accompanied by the sounds of an Indian DJ playing the latest Bollywood hits.

Experience India recommends festival goers walk, bike or take public transport to be lighter on nature, and also bring their own cutlery.