Students of the Indian Subcontinent is hosting Diwali Night, a family-friendly event that will include food and dance performances tonight to celebrate the most important holiday in India.
Diwali, the festival of lights, is a time of joy, splendor, brightness and happiness.
The celebration lasts five days and takes place in the Hindu month of Ashwayuja, which usually corresponds with October or November. Each day focuses on a special thought or ideal.
SIS co-Director Bhavaya Sachdeva is organizing the event, which takes place in the Student Recreation Center Bonus Room from 6 p.m to 11 p.m. The event will begin with an Indian dinner catered by the Indo-Pak Association, followed by Hindi dance performances.
Dinner will last from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. and feature chicken curry and a noratan korma, a mixed vegetable dish with homemade cheese for vegetarians. Naan, a popular Indian flat bread baked in a clay oven, will be served as well.
General admission is $5, but students, faculty and staff can attend for free.
Bittu Bala and dance instructor Sat Pavan Kuar’s dance group, which comprises three children, will perform.
Sachdeva said she wants Diwali Night to be an “informal mingling event.” SIS has invited University students, faculty and staff and other community members to join in the festivities that include open floor dancing to Indian music.
Money raised will go toward next year’s Diwali Night. SIS did not have enough money to include all of the activities it wanted to for this year’s celebration. Sachdeva said she had hoped to have more things for children to do and a Raas Garba performance, a style of dance using decorated sticks called dandia.
This will be the first Diwali Night in two years because last year SIS members dropped out during the planning process. In years past the event has attracted between 100 and 150 guests.
Members of every religion in India celebrate Diwali. Stories about the origin of the festival vary from region to region, but all over India thousands of lamps are lit, sweets are consumed and firecrackers explode as Indians celebrate the victory of good over evil.
Diwali day was Nov. 1, but SIS had to push the event back because the location was not yet available and the event was still in the planning process.
Students and community members from India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Maldives and Bhutan are members of SIS. According to the group’s official Web site, its mission is to “promote awareness among the general student body and the community about the cultural, economic and social aspects of the Indian subcontinent.”

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