Enlightened by Diwali Celebration 2007

On Saturday November 18, 2007 at approximately 7:30, I had the opportunity to attend a Diwali Celebration. It was hosted at Bloomington High School South by the Indian Student Association of Indiana University. I read about this particular event in the Indiana Daily Student and thought this is an excellent opportunity for me to experience, describe and interpret a ritual, festival or celebration that was new to me.

To begin with, I had to ask myself “What is Diwali?” Diwali is a major Indian and Nepalese festive holiday celebrated by Hindus, Jains and Sikhs around the world. (Diwali 1) Without getting into the significant mythological events associated with Diwali, the real meaning of Diwali is, it marks the victory of good over evil, and uplifting of spiritual darkness. (Diwali 3) Wikipedia.org also states “the most significant esoteric meaning of Diwali is the awareness of the inner light” hence the reason this five day festival is also called the “Festival of Lights”. Part of the Diwali festival is the lighting of the lamp. The meaning and significance of this particular act is light symbolizes whatever is positive, and is an important gift of God. Light is a metaphor for knowledge. By lighting the lamp it symbolizes the destruction, through knowledge, of all negative forces. Darkness represents ignorance. (Diwali Meaning & Significance) So now I will describe my experience of attending Diwali 2007 presented by Indian Student Association of Indiana University.

I arrived at approximately 6:30 p.m. I was there a little early so I had the opportunity to view the hustle and bustle before the show. I was able to see a lot of the performers in their traditional costumes. Gorgeous costumes, that consisted of beads and sequence, bright colors of teals, chartreuse green, bright pink, orange, and reds. I really took notice of how beautiful all the participants of this festival were. As an outsider who is unfamiliar with this celebration, I definitely sensed the importance of this festival to the performers and a majority of the audience. As I was waiting for the show to start, I was reviewing the programs’ event schedule; a lot of the performances were very unfamiliar to me so I was very eager to see what this Diwali Festival had to offer. Eight events where going to be performed, events that included Traditional Bharat Natayam Dance, Bollywood Classic Melody, Hindi Film Dance, Traditional Bhangra Dance by IU Bhangra, Traditional Drum Beats, Traditional Rass Dance by IU Raas Team. As the lights dim, the “Festival of Lights” begins and I anticipate the uplifting of spiritual darkness to increase my knowledge about the Diwali Festival.

The first event consisted of the Indian National Anthem being sung by Krystle Nazareth. Since the anthem was not sung in English, and there was no musical accompaniment I was only able to appreciate her beautiful vocals and notice a majority of the audience sang quietly along with her. After her performance, a recorded American national anthem was performed. After these performances it signaled to everyone that the show was about to begin.

After watching these two performances and researching Bharat Natayam dance, I have a better understanding and appreciation of the discipline required to perform this style of dance. I observed expressive hand movements accompanied by coordinated and synchronized body movements. Two events were performed in the Traditional Bharat Natayam classical dance form. Bharata Natyam is sometimes called “an art for eternity” because its practice today is virtually the same as it was thousands of years ago. (Bharat Natyam & Sacred Dance 1) Hand positions, facial expressions and narrative dances form the basis for this performance. (Bharatnatyam 1) The most striking feature of this dance is the hand gestures. The hand portrays a wide range of emotions, and each posture and body movement creates an effect which invokes transcendental emotion. (Bharat Natyam & Sacred Dance 1) The second and fifth events were Traditional Bharat Natayam Dance. The second event was performed with the song Thillana a classical Indian dance performance; it is full of complicated movements and postures. (Classical Indian Dance 7) In this performance, two female dancers were outfitted in gorgeous traditional costumes; one was in a bright pink, the other was teal. The fifth performance was accompanied by the song Meera Dasi. This was a performance to show devotion to Krishna. As in the second performance, there was much emphasis in hand movements. The female performer was outfitted in a long off-white gown with peach style shawl.

The third performance was Bollywood Classic Melody. The performers were in black capri - type pants with colored sequence tops. There was still heavy emphasis on hand movements infused with pop style dance moves with the traditional music. I found this performance fun. Bollywood is the informal name given to the popular Mumbai-based Hindi-language film industry in India.

The fourth performance was Hindi Film Dance. This was a performance involving male and female performers. The ladies were in black with silver sequence trim, the men were in black jacket with lanterns on the back. The lanterns of course represent the lighting of the lantern that is central to the Diwali celebration. Once again, there were very elaborate hand and arm movements, and a meshing of traditional and modern dance moves.

The sixth performance was Traditional Bhangra Dance by IU Bhangra. The men wore red pants, black tunics with red bandanas on their head. This was probably one of my favorite performances. It was very energetic and vigorous dance performance. Bhangra means a person intoxicated with joy. The whole audience was clapping which added to the whole performance.

The seventh performance was Traditional Drum Beats, performed by Mahavrat Shree Pithadia. The beginning of his performance he walked out carrying a long drum that he played on both ends. It appeared that he had some type of long extensions on his right hand that gave a different sound than his left hand. The type of drum he was performing on was called a thavil. Wikipedia.com states that this particular drum can either be played sitting or standing using a leather strap. The player usually wears thumb caps on all the fingers of right hand and the left hand is played with a stick. (Thavil) It certainly made for a very dramatic entrance. He performed on two other drums that were played on the floor. The sound that he produced was like no other type of drum that I have ever heard. I really watched how the palms of his hand and his fingers produced the unique sound that he produced with these drums called tabla. Their construction is very elaborate as is the playing technique. (Tabla 3)

The eighth performance was Traditional Raas Dance by IU Raas Team. The performers wore very elaborate orange, red with green costumes. Their performance was a combination of drums and the dancers with silver batons doing very energetic and complicated dance moves. Raas is a type of dance of western India and the sticks of the dance represent the swords of Durga. Durga is a warrior woman with ten arms that rides on a lion or tiger, carries weapons and does symbolic hand gestures. (Durga)

This concludes my experience and interpretation of the Diwali Celebration 2007. I now have a better understanding of the meaning and significance of Diwali to Hindus, Jains and Sikhs around the world. Although I am not an Indian group member, the Diwali Celebration has more meaning and significance to me now as an audience member than it did two weeks ago which makes Diwali a successful performance. I highly recommend everyone attend either IU Bhangra or IU Raas Team and be enlightened by these very talented performers of both groups. Also check out some of the works cited web site links to view some examples of traditional Indian dance costumes and drums.



This is my response to the Fifth Encounter Project Ritual, Festival, or Celebratory Event.



Works Cited


Sims, Martha and Martine Stephens. Living Folklore an Introduction to the Study of People and Their Traditions. Logan, Utah: Utah State University Press, 2005.


Bharat Natyam & Sacred Dance. 21 November 2007.
http://www.gosai.com/chaitanya/sarancagati/html/nmj_acticles/sacred_dance/bharata-natya

Bharatnatyam. 19 November 2007. 21 November 2007.
http://www.indoclassical.com/indo/asp/dancebharat.asp


Bollywood. 21 November 2007.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bollywood

Classical Indian Dance. 21 November 2007.
http://in.geocities.com/medhahari/classical_indian_dance/classical_Indian_dance.html


Diwali. Wikipedia.com. 16 November 2007.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diwali


Diwali Meaning & Significance. 16 November 2007.
http://www.diwalifestival.org/diwali-meaning-significance.html

Durga. 25 February 2007. 25 November 2007.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Durga

Raas. 30 October 2007. 20 November 2007.
http://en.widipedia.org/wiki/Dandiya

Simply Bhangra. 2007. 21 November 2007.
http://www.simplybhangra.originationinsite.com/aboutbhangra/4514877907

Tabla. 21 November 2007.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thavil

Thavil. 2 November 2007. 21 November 2007.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thavil