Embracing Diversity: Students celebrate Diwali at UM Flint
by Himanandini Mohanty, MS in Computer Science & Information Systems student
Diwali, the festival of lights, is celebrated every year at UM Flint. This year, the celebration was a huge success as students from the campus community came together to make the event a fun-filled experience. The Indian Student Association (ISA) left no stone unturned to make the celebration a grand and welcoming event.
Introducing the ISA board members on the event day.
Diwali is the most awaited festival in India. People light diyas (cotton string wicks inserted in small clay pots filled with oil) all around their house and pray to God to ward off the evil. Family and friends come together on the occasion of Diwali, and share gifts, love and happiness among their near and dear ones. UM-Flint students get a chance to celebrate this event every year with great pomp and show. Indian students bring forth the culture back in the campus to experience the religious celebration.
Every year, students plan the event starting with budgeting, then advertising and finally inviting eminent people from the university to join the event. Board members with their enthusiastic gestures graced the event with cultural dances, live music and fashion show. The venue was well decorated. A small prayer marked the start of the event followed by a plethora of exciting performances from different parts of India. Students were all dressed up in Indian traditional attires. One after another, there were several stage performances and the venue just echoed whistles and clapping.
In a short span of time, the aroma of Indian food filled the space and the guests were just overwhelmed experiencing the mouth-watering dishes. Guests couldn’t stop praising the variety of Indian cuisine. Lastly the event ended with the most exciting dance floor which was packed all night with a great blend of bollywood music. We cannot only thank UM Flint’s efforts to provide fun events for students, but also ISA’s efforts to present this event for us to treasure the occasion of Diwali in a foreign land.
Stay tuned to experience the celebration of diversity at UM Flint…………………………………..