The Festival of Lights illuminates MSU

Diwali — also known as the Festival of Lights — was celebrated last Saturday, Oct. 28 in the SUB Ballrooms. It was hosted by the Indian Student Association (ISA) and the Asian Student Interracial Association (A.S.I.A.). 

The event served to unite the Bozeman community as a whole and show appreciation for the members of the Indian community, both on and off campus. 

According to the BBC U.K. the five-day celebration marks the beginning of the fiscal year. Though each religion that practices the holiday celebrates different events and stories, Hindus in particular honor the return of mythological figures Rama and Sita as well as Lakshmi, the Hindu goddess of prosperity. The word Diwali originates from the Sanskrit word deepavali, meaning “rows of lighted lamps.” 

Featured at the event was dancing, Indian music, henna, food and a strong sense of community. People from all over the Bozeman community came to celebrate with family and friends and were fed well. Catering Services served authentic Indian delicacies such as butter chicken and rose-mango lassi.

“I like that Bozeman is such a small community, and everyone inherently knows each other,” professor in the School of Film and Photography Vandana Sood-Giddings said. “[Diwali] is the festival when Lord Ram from his epic fourteen-year exile and the people of Ayodhya lit up those little diyas and celebrated this festival,” Sood-Giddings said. Diyas are oil lamps that traditionally burn vegetable oil and have been used since ancient times to represent the triumph of light over dark, good over evil.

Diwali is celebrated in many different regions of India and the holiday has changed over the years. “Now it’s the largest South Asian festival in the world, and it basically symbolizes this whole idea of the victory of good over evil,” Sood-Giddings said.

Representatives of ISA Aishik Biswas and Ravi Pirati shared how they usually celebrate this holiday. “We will go out and buy things — like we will go out and buy new clothes and everything new,” Pirati said. “In the evening, we will light firecrackers for three days in a row.”

“We cover our entire home with these small diyas. There [are] hundreds of diyas spread around the entire home  and every evening we have diya lighting, so we light diyas in every home,” Biswas said.

Celebrating holidays of different cultures is undoubtedly important in any community, with Bozeman being no different. It allows people to share in the cultural traditions of friends, family and colleagues within the MSU community and beyond. “I think that representation is something really important in a university like MSU, when there is not that much diversity,” Biswas said. 

“These events really help to get the community together and help us to celebrate aspects of our culture that are really pure to us and [allow us] to experience things that we are not able to experience because we are very far from home,” Biwas said.

“We are really thankful to the Bozeman community for coming in large numbers [to] support these events, and also [to] the different colleges, the different offices. We are really thankful for them,” Biwas said.

If you are interested in joining the A.S.I.A. or ISA, be sure to look at CatsConnect for more information or follow their social media pages. 

A.S.I.A. Instagram: @asia_montanastate

ISA Instagram: @isabozeman