On Tuesday, November 12, 2024, the Indian Student Association (ISA) hosted its annual special event, the Festival of Lights Diwali Celebration, in the Multicultural Center. This event was filled with vibrant and joyous traditions from different parts of Indian culture. 

Usually celebrated between mid-September to mid-November, Diwali is one of the most major and crucial religious festivals in Hinduism, Jainism, and Sikhism. With different variants of its celebration, in Indian religion, it symbolizes the victory of light over darkness and knowledge over ignorance. One of ISA’s main goals for this event was to further immerse people into cultural and traditional richness while coming together to help enlighten Stockton’s campus with the spirit of Diwali. Some of the main highlights of the event were performances by some of the e-board members and ISA staff, the Henna Tattoo Station where people left the event with a beautiful henna tattoo representative of years of cultural tradition, amazing Indian cuisine, and overall general information about Diwali and its main importance. 

Before the event started, the President of ISA, Khushi Shah, gave opening remarks to thank campus partners such as SET, the Stockton Entertainment Team, and the Mu Sigma Upsilon Fraternity for helping them with this event. She then gave a brief description about Diwali, and what they had planned for tonight with everybody. Before seeing some of the main performances, the crowd got a chance to learn sand painting that was distributed to every table. Sandpainting is the art of pouring colorful, pigmented sand from minerals and crystals onto surfaces to create beautiful and intricate designs. Many people who showed up to this event loved the sandpainting and got to take pictures with their amazing creations and take them home.

Once the event officially began, there were four performances with the last one being a collaboration with e-board staff and members. The first performance was by the Vice President of ISA, Mrugakshi Brahmbhatt, and she performed to the song, “Ghar More Pardesiya.” The next performance was by Aastha Pandya and she performed to the song, “Radha Kaise Na Jale” and “Barso Re.” After this performance was a duet with Shah and Tilanjoly and they performed the song “Ghagra,” which prompted the audience to erupt in applause. The last performance was with ISA e-board and members to the songs “Radha” and “Sauda Khara Khara.” Everyone thoroughly enjoyed this performance, watching all the members of ISA enjoying themselves and performing beautifully. Once this performance concluded there was once again applause and cheers. 

After the performance was finished, the rest of the event was used to let people get henna tattoos and indulge in some amazing cuisines , all while socializing with the people around them. Some of the food offered at the celebration included butter chicken, naan, rice, samosa, paneer tikka masala, ras malai, and many more rich and traditional foods. Henna Tattoo artist, Riddhi Brahmbhatt, also known as RB, did amazing designs and asked people if there was a specific design they preferred before she got to work. She then started to do intricate drawings and told people what she was doing in the process. 

The Argo did a quick interview with the President Shah, asking her the main goals of having this event. To the first question of, “How would you describe ISA to anyone who’s never heard of it?,” Shah answered by stating that “ISA is a welcoming club no matter the identity, culture, and race, and our main goal overall is to show and educate people on their culture and traditions.” To the question of, “What do you hope people get out of tonight’s event?,” Shah again answered beautifully and swiftly: “We want people to leave this event knowing what Diwali is and the main importance of it, we also hope that people enjoy the food and the performances tonight.” As for holding events like Diwali in the future and how ISA would obtain a larger spot on campus, Shah answered, “Yes! We would love to continue doing this event and hope to have it in larger spaces. When it comes to obtaining that goal I think I would just like to publicize it more or even if I just see a random student just let them know, ‘Hey come out to this event.’” 

Overall, the event was a great success, representing togetherness and community. ISA had a goal to bring everyone together regardless of cultural background and encouraged many people to invite their family and friends to make it a comfortable environment. They made sure people were fed, and different members came up to tables and asked people if they liked more food and would like to take any home.

Be sure to check out ISA’s OspreyHub and Instagram, @ISAStockton, for more events like this one. Further research on Diwali was conducted at the source listed here.