Celebrating Diwali and still making it to class

The holidays are alive on campus this month, and not just the hotly anticipated cranberry-flavored turkey feast on Thursday. In fact, a huge celebration of all things light, happy and hopeful has already occurred. The celebration was Diwali, one of the most important Hindu holidays of the year. 

Diwali is a five-day festival holiday, with its third day being the main festival day for celebration. The days of the celebration depend on the Hindu Lunisolar calendar, and this year the holiday began in the middle of the school week on Wednesday, Nov. 11. Hinduism is the most practiced religion in India and Nepal and has more than 900 million adherents worldwide, according to BBC. 

“Hinduism worldwide is one of the top-three religions [in number of followers] even though Judeo-Christian religions are given more of a focus in America,” said Avi Aggarwal, co-founder of the NC State Hindu Students Association and a senior studying chemical engineering. “There are a lot of Hindu students on campus in my experience.”

Aggarwal said there are many different reasons to celebrate Diwali based on the stories of different Hindu deities, but one of the main stories celebrated is the triumph of Lord Rama over Ravana, a story representing good triumphing over evil. In the story, after Lord Rama won his victory, lamps were lit to guide his way back home, which gave Diwali its secondary name of the Festival of Lights and created the tradition of lighting lanterns in celebration during the holiday. 

In the family of Shankara Sethuraman, a graduate studying electrical engineering, Diwali is the time of the year they all look forward to and consider it the most important festival in Hinduism. 

“Diwali in my life meant long weekends, new clothes, firecrackers, sweets and a whole day of special programming on TV,” Sethuraman said. “Looking past the festivities, Diwali is celebrated to mark the triumph of good over evil: Be it Sri Rama returning to Ayodhya or Sri Krishna slaying Narakasura, it marks the start of the long winter and is a reminder to us that spring and summer will follow.”

Aggarwal said the lights also celebrate and symbolize the energy given from the sun to the world by God and the inner light inside everybody that represents one’s faith and positivity. However, Diwali is usually celebrated with one’s family, which can provide significant challenges to students without transportation or students who have class.

“There are a few temples nearby who have celebrations, and so people who have access to transportation might go there,” Aggarwal said. “You want to be with your family. If people can go home, they usually do.”

Aggarwal said despite it being less well known than the other major Hindu holiday of Holi, Diwali is just as important if not more so.

“Diwali and Holi are our two biggest holidays,” Aggarwal said. “Diwali is like our Christmas and Holi our Easter.”

Holi is another major holiday celebrated by Hindus that celebrates the beginning of spring. In 2016 it will also fall in the middle of a school week. The holiday is most famous for a tradition where people throw bright colored powder at each other to celebrate life.   

Aggarwal said most Hindus will take time off of work for Diwali or Holi, but that time off is not covered by typical holiday breaks in the United States. She said her own father has had trouble getting time off for Diwali in the past due to traveling for work and has video-chatted with the family during prayers so that he can still celebrate with them.

“That’s just the way are calendar is set up in the United States where you have a big break around Christmas and New Year’s,” Aggarwal said. “But there are lots of other holidays or religious traditions that don’t happen in that time period that are just as important for other populations that get overlooked. Islam’s Eid, Ramadan and Yom Kippur in Judaism, and us with Diwali.”

“That is something I would love to see changed,” Aggarwal said. “I think it would be great if more employers or schools would send notices or memos wishing a happy Diwali and offering time off as opposed to the burden being on someone to have to go through more logistical barriers to make that happen.”   

Aggarwal said she and other Hindu students can run into some other difficulties when trying to practice the Hindu faith.

“Flames are a big part of a lot of religious rituals,” Aggarwal said. “If you wanted to do Puja, one of our forms of prayer, then you would have to use an electronic flame or something if you were living in a dorm.” 

Aggarwal said she thinks most Hindu students accept having to change how they practice their religion on campus with rituals such as a Puja. Aggarwal gave the example of having to take off her mauli, a thread worn like a bracelet on the wrist that is used to represent protection given from God, when she participates in sporting events.

“Different things people wear might be stigmatized or questioned,” Aggarwal said. “Different forms of jewelry women wear, especially bindis, the dot on the forehead, can be looked upon strangely or unfavorably. Some people kind of tone down what they might practice otherwise for the sake of blending in.”

Aggarwal also discussed the issue of cultural appropriation, where people adopt or use elements of Hindu culture without understanding their meanings or improperly using Hindu symbols.

“Sometimes Hinduism is associated with hip or alternative trends,” Aggarwal said. “I was at a party and someone was wearing a Ganesh [a Hindu deity] T-shirt, and they didn’t know what it meant. Being in situations like those might cause other religious people to get mad, but for students who are Hindu, they typically look different and come from a place where, growing up in America, they’ve been between two cultures and sometimes they have to choose between standing up and representing their religion, their cultural identity, versus blending in which is often a challenge in situations like that.”    

Aggarwal said there are several misunderstandings people have about her faith, like people believing that the religion is polytheistic (worshipping multiple gods) or that it involves idol worship. She explained that Hinduism has one god, Brahman, and that all of the religion’s other “gods” are simply different incarnations of one god. 

“People think that there are thousands of gods in Hinduism, but they’re all incarnations,” Aggarwal said. “Each of those incarnations have stories that show different aspects of God, and through that we can tangibly see and understand what is God’s way.”

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