New York City is all set to mark Diwali as a public school holiday. Earlier this year, Pennsylvania recognised the festival of lights as an official holiday. From celebrations at the White House to products by major brands, Diwali has become more mainstream in the US
Diwali, the festival of lights celebrated prominently by Hindus, will now be a public school holiday in United States’ New York City (NYC), Mayor Eric Adams announced Monday (26 June). The development comes after the New York Senate and Assembly voted in favour of the bill earlier this month making Diwali a public school holiday in New York City. “I’m so proud to have stood with Assemblymember Jenifer Rajkumar and community leaders in the fight to make Diwali a school holiday. I know it’s a little early in the year, but: Shubh Diwali!” the NYC Mayor said in a tweet. Now, the bill has to be signed by Governor Kathy Hochul to add Diwali to the list of public school holidays in NYC.
As per Associated Press (AP), there are 200,000 people in
New York City who observe the festival. In April, Pennsylvania reportedly became the first US state to recognise Diwali as an official holiday. How has the US embraced the festival of lights? Let’s take a closer look. Diwali at the White House Diwali celebrations at the White House started under George W Bush’s presidency. According to a rediff.com report from October 2003, Bush’s chief political advisor Karl Rove marked the festivities by lighting a brass lamp in the Indian Treaty Room. The event was attended by some 70 members of the Indian American community. In 2009, Barack Obama became the first US president to light a diya in the Oval Office of the White House to mark Diwali. In a post on the White House Facebook page, the then US president wrote: “I was proud to be the first President to host a Diwali celebration at the White House in 2009, and Michelle and I will never forget how the people of India welcomed us with open arms and hearts and danced with us in Mumbai on Diwali”. “This year, I was honoured to kindle the first-ever diya in the Oval Office – a lamp that symbolises how darkness will always be overcome by light. It is a tradition that I hope future Presidents will continue,” news agency PTI further quoted him as saying. The tradition was continued by Obama’s successor Donald Trump who also hosted Diwali celebrations at the White House during his tenure. Last October, the current US president Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden threw the “largest” Diwali celebration ever at the White House, reported NBC News. “The ongoing story of America, a story that is firmly stamped in the Indian American and South Asian American experience, that’s why we’re here today,” the US president said in his speech. [caption id=“attachment_12794602” align=“alignnone” width=“640”]![diwali in the us]()
Graphic: Pranay Bhardwaj[/caption] Vice President Kamala Harris, who also attended the event, shared her childhood memories of Diwali in India. “I have such fond memories of celebrating Diwali as a child. Like many of you, we would go to India about every other year, avoiding monsoon season, and we would go for Diwali. … My mother would give us lit sparklers, and we would go into the streets to celebrate this very important occasion,” she said last year, as per NBC News. Bill on Diwali in US Congress In May this year, Congresswoman from Queens, Grace Meng, introduced legislation to make Diwali a federal holiday. If the Diwali Day Act is passed by the US Congress and gets President’s approval, then Diwali would become the 12th federally recognised holiday in America, she said, as per PTI. “My Diwali Day Act is one step toward educating all Americans on the importance of this day, and celebrating the full face of American diversity. I look forward to shepherding this bill through Congress,” Meng said last month. New York Assemblywoman Jenifer Rajkumar and New York State Senator Jeremy Cooney hailed Meng for introducing the bill. “My extraordinary partner in government Congresswoman Meng is now taking the movement national with her historic legislation to make Diwali a federal holiday. Together, we are showing that Diwali is an American holiday. To the over four million Americans who celebrate Diwali, your government sees you and hears you,” Rajkumar said in May. In October 2013, the US Congress marked the first-ever Diwali celebrations, with around two dozen lawmakers and notable Indian-Americans gathering at Capitol Hill to light the traditional diyas, reported PTI. Diwali in the US Diwali is celebrated by Hindus, Sikhs, Jains and even some Buddhists. Besides India, it is a significant festival in Nepal, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Singapore and other nations with South Asian diasporas. With the population of
Indian Americans growing since 2000, Diwali has turned into a more mainstream festival in the US, noted CNN. According to Pew Research Center analysis in 2021, Indian Americans account for 21 per cent of the 18.9 million Asian American community. AP’s 2017 article shows how Diwali celebrations have spread from Disney California Adventure Park in California’s Anaheim to Times Square in New York. Speaking to AP at the time, Neeta Bhasin, President and CEO of Event Guru and ASB Communications – the marketing firm behind Diwali celebrations at Times Square, said that although immigrant Indians have found success in the US, “still people don’t know much about India. I felt it’s about time that we should take India to mainstream America and showcase India’s rich culture, heritage, arts and diversity to the world. And I couldn’t find a better place than the center of the universe: Times Square.”
Melas or fairs have also become common every year, with shops and vendors selling Diwali paraphernalia wherever there is a notable Indian American population. “We buy our diyas (oil-wick lamps), puja stuff, aarthi (prayer) books, and Indian sweets and snacks from local Indian stores,” Neena Shah, a resident of Roslyn, Long Island, New York, told Quartz in 2018. “Earlier, there would be pockets (of such stores) where Indians used to live, like in Flushing or Hicksville (in New York), but now there’s a Patel Brothers, an Usha Foods, or an Apna Bazaar in most places.” In Cary, North Carolina, Hum Sub, a non-profit Indian cultural organisation, has been organising one of the biggest Diwali events in the region since 2000, as per the Quartz report. The day-long celebration held around Diwali sees performances from local community members and, also, Indian celebrities, the report added. According to AP, the Texas city of San Antonio holds one of America’s largest city-sponsored celebrations of Diwali. [caption id=“attachment_12794612” align=“alignnone” width=“640”]![white house diwali]()
US president Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and First Lady Jill Biden celebrated Diwali at the White House last year. Reuters File Photo[/caption] Acknowledging the rising recognition of Diwali in the US, major brands have tried to seize the opportunity through their products and advertising. As per CNN, fireworks are available at Costco, Target has party decorations and Hallmark is selling greeting cards. After yearslong efforts by influential Indian Americans, including lawmakers, the US postal service launched a Diwali stamp in 2016. “The growing acknowledgment of the holiday in the US is a marked shift for many first- and second-generation South Asian Americans who grew up celebrating the festival at home but rarely saw it acknowledged outside of their communities,” Soni Satpathy-Singh, who runs the meal delivery review website Meal Matchmaker, was quoted as saying by CNN last year. For the next generation Many Indian Americans have started having big celebrations on Diwali as they want their children to continue observing the festival of lights as they grow older. “I’ve tried to incorporate that much more consistently in their lives so that when they get to high school or later, they’ve got that fundamental that I feel like I was missing,” Radha Patel, who grew up in Maryland, told CNN in 2021. “Then they can evolve and grow in their own traditions and practices moving forward in a way that makes sense to them.” She told the US-headquartered news channel that her Hindu parents did not particularly celebrate the festival of lights at home. But now that she has kids of her own, she marks Diwali with a mix of Indian and Western traditions. “The idea is we’re coming together as a community,” Patel, who now lives in Dallas, told CNN. “The fundamental part of Diwali that I want to pass on is that this is something special that our community celebrates, and I want that to be special for my children.” With inputs from agencies Read all the
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