Indian Festival

GAMBIER, Ohio (November 1, 2006) Kenyon faculty and students across the religious and ethnic spectrum will join together on Saturday, November 4, to celebrate Diwali, the Indian Festival of Lights. Joyous festivities organized by students and featuring Indian music, dance, and food will take place in Gund Ballroom from 8:30 to 11:00 p.m.

SAMOSA, the South Asian Multicultural Organization for Student Awareness, plans to accommodate at least five hundred students and community members. The festivities include both traditional and modern Indian music, four henna artists, and, of course, Indian food, catered by a Columbus restaurant. The celebration's main attraction is Nachda Punjab, a bhangra dance troupe from Canada, whose members will introduce the audience to the elements of traditional Indian folk dance. Gund Ballroom will be illuminated by candles and lamps in the traditional fashion, as a night-long reminder of the power of a community of compassion.

Diwali celebrates a variety of significant events in the Hindu, Sikh, and Jain traditions. It is also a time to contemplate the Inner Light, or Atman, the illumination of mind and universal compassion sought by observers of the holiday. Diwali falls at a different time every year on the Gregorian calendar, generally between October and November. This year, the holiday was observed on October 21, but SAMOSA, the student-led organization planning the festivities, pushed back the celebration due to the sheer number of events taking place on campus as October drew to a close.

-- Brendan Dieffenbach, Class of 2010