This week in class we sing “Diwali Aayee,” or “Everybody Loves Diwali,” a holiday ceiebration from India. Diwali (or “Deepavali”) is the Hindu “Festival of Lights,” an exuberant holiday full of fireworks and food. It is an ancient holiday and has developed over more than a thousand years to become a beloved festival with different religious and cultural meaning depending on who is celebrating (Jains, Sikhs and Newar Buddhists also value the holiday, among others) and in what part of the world. All iterations of Diwali celebrate “light,” in its physical and metaphoric forms, with diyas (lamps) and candles marking the path to enlightenment through knowledge, and the triumph of “light” (good) over the darkness of evil.
