As the sky turns to dusk this coming Wednesday, the Tower will transform into a celebratory scene, complete with music, dancing and, most notably, light.
From 6:30 PM to 10:30 PM on Wednesday, the Longhorn Hindu Students Association will host their annual Diwali celebration at the Main Mall. Free and open to the UT community, the event features a food truck, student performances, fireworks and a Bollywood dance party to conclude the night.
For math sophomore Anusha Singhal, who serves as Diwali co-chair, the planning phase of the celebration began in mid-summer. On Wednesday, she anticipates between 800 to 1000 attendees.
“Diwali is … known as the Festival of Lights, (and) we’ve tried to incorporate this into our theme for the year, ‘light up the world,’” Singhal said. “Diwali itself revolves around this idea of the victory of good over evil, so we usually celebrate this with food, dancing and singing.”
According to Singhal, HSA aims to mirror a fair-style structure with activities like shopping stalls and sparkler lighting.
Pranav Chelat, finance junior and HSA financial director, said he managed the rangoli station during last year’s Diwali, where visitors paint small portions of a large-scale flower painting. It proved to be one of his favorite events of the night.
“Each person paints a different portion, and it makes a colorful painting of a flower, so that was pretty interesting,” Chelat said. “Having people come over, draw and ask ‘What colors should I use?’ … was cool. Hearing people talk about it was a lot of fun.”
Chalet said the event doubles as an educational opportunity to learn more about Diwali.
“Many people came to the booth last year and asked questions like, ‘What does this look like? How does Diwali work? How do you celebrate at home?’ It was cool to see the curiosity,” Chelat said. “Even though some people don’t celebrate (Diwali), having people interested in learning more and getting aware of the event was cool.”
For out-of-state student Parul Gupta, last year’s Diwali helped her create a sense of community.
“(After) I walked away that night, I could not sleep because I was so happy about the experience,” said Gupta, a statistics and data science sophomore. “Building that sense of community, especially for people who can’t go back (home), but still feel like they’re keeping themselves in touch with the Hindu culture is one of the big things (we hope to accomplish).”
With the event approaching soon, Gupta expressed her excitement about the culmination of the Diwali team’s efforts.
“All of that hard work is going to sum into these four hours, so we just hope that it runs really smoothly,” Gupta said. “Sometimes (attendees) will DM us on Instagram and be like ‘That was an amazing event,’ so hearing that positive feedback keeps us going.”
