Diwali, a South Asian festival celebrating light over darkness, was hosted on Nov. 10 at the University of Oregon Erb Memorial Union Ballroom by the South Asian Cultural Alliance. Roughly 250 students and community members filled the space, gathering for food and local performances throughout the evening.
“Diwali is meant to show love,” Saisha Rajpara, a UO junior who performed a dance during the event, said. She also serves as a secretary for SACA this year.
Rajpara’s involvement in SACA began with Diwali her freshman year. “I fell in love with the way SACA fostered a community,” Rajpara said.
Diwali is translated as a row of lights, which symbolizes triumph over darkness, or good over evil. Although this celebration has ties to Hindu religion, Rajpara said the event is for anyone to give and share with family and community.
Rajpara performed a dance at Diwali with one of her close friends, Gayatri Misra, UO junior from India. Both of them were classically trained in dance growing up, and their smiles beamed throughout their performance, showing their love of dancing.
“Dance tells a story,” Rajpara said. During the performance, both dancers used facial expressions to deliver the story and to interact with each other through gestures and eye contact.
Not used to being in a large South Asian community, Rajpara said she was nervous at first at the event, but sharing and celebrating her culture at Diwali opened her eyes. “This is not just a predominately white institution. People are so accepting and loving,” Rajpara said.
Sree Sareday, a junior at UO, started serving as the president of SACA this year. “I don’t feel like I am a president because I am working with the best friends and best people,” Sareday said. “I am blessed to be in this position.”
Sareday said that coming from San Jose, she was used to having a community that shares her culture. But when she came to Oregon, she faced difficulty in finding a cultural community, as Oregon is a predominantly white state.
Sareday said the SACA community is not only a cultural group but a family. Having similar backgrounds makes it easier to share their favorite movies and music in the group.
“I do feel like we have the same sense of humor,” Sareday said. “We feel a responsibility to the community to make sure they have a space here.”
SACA invites artists and performers from Eugene and throughout Oregon to participate in their events, and some people drive hours to attend. Performers at the event included a number of dancers from children to elders, a poet and a singer.
Leigh-Anna Rezel recently moved to Eugene from England and found out about Diwali through SACA’s Instagram account. When she saw a post calling for artists, she said she signed up to perform a poem without even thinking.
Rezel grew up in England with her parents from Sri Lanka. “Sri Lanka is always going to be a part of me,” Rezel said. “I’m keen to get connected with people in the community and that motivated me to look for events.”
Rezel’s poem featured cultural aspects of the Diwali as well as social issues that the community is facing, specifically colorism. Rezel said colorism is not only the issue but a “symptom of a bigger issue from contemporary capitalism, colonialism and white supremacy.”
For Rezel and many others, Diwali is a happy celebration, so she wrote the poem in a light-hearted, palatable way while also delivering a message to the community on how to deal with topics of colorism and injustice.
Although Diwali is a South Asian cultural celebration, the event was open to anyone who is interested. Daniele Sparks, a UO junior, saw the event in an email and watched a YouTube video that talked about what the event is.
Sparks said that she “wanted to be more active on campus,” which prompted her to attend. Sparks is a member of the Colville confederated tribes in Washington, and she engages with the Native American community on campus.
The UO Native American community often hosts events at the Long House, which Sparks said became a home away from home where she sees her friends, studies and shares “Indian tacos” with the community every week.
Sparks described her first 20 minutes at the Diwali event as intimidating.“I was the outsider at the event,” Sparks said. She often invites her non-native friends to events hosted by the community, so going to Diwali was the opposite of what she’s used to.
However, Sparks said that for a while she felt at ease by interacting with welcoming people and getting to know them. “It’s always the first 20 minutes that are a little awkward, but after that, it gets better,” she said.
Sparks said that overall she “felt inspired to be [herself] and to stand up to colonization,” and that seeing people preserve the culture inspired her to “do my part back home.”
“Going to the event expanded the horizon of where I feel comfortable on campus,” Sparks said.
For students of all ethnicities, SACA and other cultural events embrace the power of connecting people of different backgrounds, bringing more perspectives to our understanding of the world.
SACA holds other annual events throughout the year. Bollywood Ball takes place in winter term with dance, music and community. Holi, the festival of color, brings people to chase each other with Gulal, colored powder to throw at others in spring term.
In addition to events, SACA holds general meetings every Thursday at 6 p.m. at the Mills International Center in EMU, and information can be found on their Tiktok and Instagram @uoregonsaca or on the Engage website.
