{"id":73043,"date":"2023-11-28T16:37:46","date_gmt":"2023-11-28T23:37:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/?p=73043"},"modified":"2023-11-28T16:37:46","modified_gmt":"2023-11-28T23:37:46","slug":"diwali-celebrations-strengthen-indo-canadian-communities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/2023\/11\/28\/diwali-celebrations-strengthen-indo-canadian-communities\/","title":{"rendered":"Diwali celebrations strengthen Indo-Canadian communities"},"content":{"rendered":"
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International SAIT student:\u00a0<\/strong>Vinayak Sood poses outside the Senator Burns building after celebrating Diwali at SAIT on Friday, Nov. 10, 2023. SAIT organized an amazing event to celebrate the Indian festival Diwali. Sood enjoyed this festival a lot by dancing in the Indian style. (Photo by Harpreet Singh\/The Press)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Diwali, the festival of lights, is an important celebration for Indians. It plays a huge role in Indian culture, uniting people to celebrate the victory of good over evil.<\/p>\n

With more Indian people immigrating to Canada, the festival has been transported to the West. Huge parties were arranged all over the country by Indo-Canadians to celebrate Diwali on Nov. 12. These celebrations play a role in strengthening the bonds within the local Indian communities.<\/p>\n

\u201cDiwali is totally different here as compared to India,\u201d said SAIT student Vinayak Sood. \u201cI miss those days very much when my friends and I used to burn crackers and enjoy almost the whole night without sleeping.<\/p>\n

“Relatives visit each other\u2019s house to give gifts and sweets, and to enjoy this festival together.\u201d<\/p>\n

People start preparing for Diwali a month before the celebration. Supplies such as fireworks, light strings, sweets and diyas (oil lamps) can be found in stores like Walmart and other superstores, often discounted.<\/p>\n

Religious ceremonies and parties are organized all over Canada to celebrate Diwali. Most of these events are supported by educational institutions and community groups. They are usually open to the public.<\/p>\n

SAIT organized a Diwali Fest celebration in the Stan Grand Centre on Nov. 10 to promote diversity. There were performances related to the traditional folk dance of India. Afterward, the dance floor was left for open, with Punjabi and Hindi songs playing.<\/p>\n

\u201cDancing together in groups was the best part of the whole event,\u201d said Sood. \u201cAlthough the dance floor was crowded and there wasn\u2019t proper space for dance, still, nobody was leaving the dance floor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fireworks are an essential part of the festival. However, fireworks can be extremely damaging to the environment. In Ottawa, a bylaw was implemented to stop the use of fireworks in private areas unless permitted by a fire chief<\/a>. Overall, the use of fireworks has gone down as people are becoming more aware of the damage they cause. The oil lamps have even been replaced with LED lamps in some cases.<\/p>\n

Compared to India, Diwali is a different experience in Canada. Despite this, the Canadian government and institutes such as SAIT continue to celebrate foreign festivals to uphold the multicultural atmosphere around the country.<\/p>\n

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International SAIT student:<\/strong> Vinayak Sood posing outside the Senator Burns building after celebrating Diwali at SAIT on Friday, Nov. 10,2023. SAIT organized an amazing event to celebrate Indian festival Diwali. Sood enjoyed this festival a lot by dancing in Indian traditional style. (Photo by Harpreet Singh\/The Press)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Canadian institutes like SAIT are maintaining a multicultural environment around the country by celebrating other community’s festivals. [ READ MORE ]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":878,"featured_media":73047,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_ef_editorial_meta_text_assignment-slug":"Diwali celebration Story package 2 H.S. ","footnotes":""},"categories":[9,2,1588,1702],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-73043","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-life","8":"category-campus-2","9":"category-sait-events","10":"category-spotlight"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73043","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/878"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73043"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73043\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":73242,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73043\/revisions\/73242"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}