By Elizabeth Coss
With candles lit and colors adorned, students of Youngstown State University celebrated Diwali — a predominantly Hindu holiday — with rituals from across the world.
Also known as the Festival of Lights, Diwali is said to represent the triumph of good over evil according to Manev Desai, a freshman premedical biological sciences major from India, who organized the celebration.
“Today we worship the goddess Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth. Along with worshiping her, we believe that she betrothes us with prosperity for all year long,” Desai said. “We need wealth to start a new career, we need wealth to start a new startup, we need wealth to start a new business and we need wealth to get by – to get through – in day to day activities.”
On Lakshmi Puja, the third day of Diwali, students gathered in the President’s Suite of Kilcawley Center to honor the goddess Lakshmi through rituals. Each day of Diwali has different celebrations and rites to honor deities of the Hindu religion.
The festival was celebrated with a traditional Lakshmi Puja set-up, designed for students to honor and pray to various deities. The setup represented goddesses Lakshmi and Sarasvati, and Lord Ganesha, who are honored through different aspects of everyday life like literature, education and wisdom, according to Desai.
Sheeraz Mohd, an international graduate student from India studying civil and environmental engineering, said he misses celebrating Diwali in India.
“In India, everyone celebrates … Diwali is like a festival, usually Hindu’s celebrate, but it is a holy day of celebrating and this is a festival of lights and so many colors,” Mohd said.
Diwali is celebrated by believers of Hinduism, Sikhism and Jainism in many countries around the world, and international students from India, Nepal, Pakistan and Bangladesh gathered to recognize cultural differences through foods and speakers.
Ritika Joshi, an international student from Nepal and freshman computer science major who celebrated Diwali — known as Tihar in Nepal — and said there are many aspects to Tihar.
“We put [momentos] to and give some of our gifts to our brother,” Joshi said. “It is also known as the celebration of life.”
Joshi also said during Tihar, gifts, known as “tika,” would be given to brothers out of respect and to honor them over the five-day period, alongside worshiping the deities to promote wealth and prosperity.
Tihar and Diwali both focus on honoring the deities for their blessings bestowed upon believers over the five-day festival.
Students ended the nightly celebrations after a ritual where individuals would ring a bell and hold a tray with the symbol of peace upon the tray, with offerings for the deities on top, followed by dancing, singing and trying a variety of cultural foods from countries like India and Nepal.
Diwali celebrations vary yearly as the holiday is based on the lunar calendar. Next year’s Diwali is scheduled for Nov. 12 to Nov. 16.
