More than 250 community members packed McKinnon Hall for a celebration of the Hindu Festival of Lights.
On the evening of November 13, McKinnon Hall in Moseley Center was filled with the sound of music, the smells and flavors of Indian food, and the joyful voices of 250 students, faculty and staff, families and community members celebrating Diwali, the Hindu Festival of Lights.
Elon’s Truitt Center for Religious and Spiritual Life has hosted Diwali for 12 years to support the university community’s understanding of diverse religious and spiritual traditions and to provide a feeling of home and meaning for Hindu students, faculty and staff.
“Diwali at Elon was a really important event for me,” shared Neil Parmar ’28. “Not only was it a colorful and meaningful event in itself, but for me, it provided a sense of cultural community, one that I’ve felt absent from for the past 12 or so weeks. It was so wonderful to look around an event hall and see the culture I’ve grown up being represented on the walls, on the stage, and in attendees’ dishes.”
Attendees gathered to hear an informative presentation by the Multifaith Interns Lauren Bedell ’26, Ahron Frankel ’26, and Lizeth Torres-Tomas ’27, listen to Diwali stories from Tara Venkataraman ’25, Santosh Goapalan ’27, and Suhina Goel ’28, and enjoy a performance by Surtal, Elon’s Bollywood Dance Group, choreographed by Surtal President Rece Raju ’25. Delicious authentic Indian food from Taaza, henna (mehndi) art and glowing LED light wands rounded out the celebration of light.
“My family immigrated to the US, making me a first generation Indian American…. like many other first gens, we live on the border of two identities,” said Venkataraman. “As a first year, I remember looking around at a celebration half this size and feeling such gratitude. Today, as a senior, I am so grateful that you all are here celebrating a holiday that means so much to people like me. I am so grateful to meet the upcoming South Asian students at Elon and I’m grateful to stand here as a member of the Indian community on campus.”
Diwali is a five-day Hindu religious festival that symbolizes the victory of light over darkness. The festival occurs on the new moon and marks the start of the Hindu New Year. Elon’s campus celebration is led by the Truitt Center’s Multifaith interns and Director of Multifaith Programming and Engagement Hillary Zaken.
Lizeth Torres-Tomas and the multifaith interns spent the weeks leading up to Diwali connecting with members of the campus Hindu community and learning about the significance of the holiday.
“Planning Diwali was an insight into another culture and community, and I am thankful to have had the opportunity to explore it alongside my fellow interns,” said Torres-Tomas. “Because of this hard work and excitement, we were able to beautifully execute this event with the help of our Elon community.”
The Truitt Center for Religious and Spiritual Life’s mission is to support and engage the campus community with the wisdom of the world’s religious, spiritual and ethical traditions. Events such as Diwali, the Green Tara Sand Mandala, the Lunar New Year, Purim, Holi and Eid al-fitr are open to the entire campus and designed to unite the community around celebration, meaning and education about the diversity of religious identities at Elon.
“Sometimes for students’ part of a non-majority group, especially first-years, it can mean so much just to feel seen and represented,” said Parmar. “The merge of Hindu culture and the Elon community was an exceptional display of this sort of visibility, and I was so excited to have been in attendance at Elon’s Diwali!”