Students celebrated India’s culture Saturday with food, music, dancing and fireworks.
Organizers said they held the festival, called Diwali, to educate students and celebrate India’s uniqueness.
“The festival gives us a way to have fun and get together with our friends,” attendee Neru Bedi said. “It also gives people that are not familiar with our culture an insight to another side of our society.”
Arun Ramakrishnan, president of the India Student Association, said that the festival helped expose people to the beliefs and religion of India. It is an annual event, but this is the first year it has been presented on a large scale.
“Diwali is a celebration or special holiday like Christmas is here in America,” Ramakrishnan said. “Diwali means a ‘row of lamps’ or a ‘festival of light.’ It is a holy tradition that symbolizes the victory of light over darkness.”
The program, held at the Starkville Church of God’s Family Life Center, showcased music, food and different types of dancing from areas of India. The India Student Association in conjunction with the Student Association and the International Services Office sponsored the festival.
The first performer, Shailja, performed a dance called Bharatnatyam. It was a traditional Indian dance, emphasized by descriptive hand gestures and quick feet movements.
The Desi band, Lukkhhas, was the featured band of the night. The New Orleans band’s songs were mostly piano driven, but some songs had bass lines that were easy to dance to, and dance the audience did. While the band was playing, some of the people in the audience climbed on stage and danced along with the music.
The India Student Association presented its Cricket Cup awards. Cricket is played on an oval or ground with 11 players on each team. Everyone gets to bat and anyone can bowl except the wicketkeeper who stands behind the wickets as a catcher would in baseball.
They presented awards to the best bowler of the year, batman of the year, the runner-up team, the championship team and the most valuable player. Audience members clapped and chanted of players’ names.
Afterward door prizes were given away and there was more music and dancing.
The audience also played a game called Tambola. Tambola, also known as Housie, is one of the most popular games among Indian masses. The game is played similar to Bingo. One person calls out the number and then the audience crosses out that number. There are several different ways to win.
Dinner followed the performance. Ekta Mathur, cultural secretary, said that “the food is a mix of traditional Indian food from West and North India like pav bhaji, and sweets like gulab jamun which contains milk.”
The festival of lights ended with a fireworks show that lasted about 30 minutes, blanketing the sky with red, white, purple, blue and green bursts.