Diwali is a festival to be grateful and worship for the well-being in the name of the lord.

Candles outside of the Hollywood Sikh Gurudwara on November 4, 2021. (Anushka Soni | The Corsair)

Diwali, an Indian festival just like Christmas, is the festival of lights, sweets, and gossips. Diwali festival is celebrated according to the Indian calendar on every 15th day of the eight-month which is October in the American Calendar as it is the darkest day of the lunar month. This year it was celebrated on November 4th at the Hollywood Sikh Temple. Diwali is celebrated with candles, fancy lights, lanterns, and traditional candles called diyas.

Each Indian religion has a different way of celebrating Diwali. At the Hollywood Sikh Temple, there was melodious chanting called Kirtan followed by the Path, the book for Gurbani, then ended with Ardaas. Mr. Sarabjeet Singh is one of the Gurus (pastor), on the auspicious day of Diwali. When asked why Diwali is celebrated in Sikhism, he responded with a smile and said, “Diwali is a festival of togetherness and light for us”.

Diwali was first celebrated because the Sikh people’s sixth Guru, Hargobind, was released in 1619 from prison with 52 princes because of Mughals in India. The people who lived in Amritsar, North India lit up the Golden Sahib Darbar Temple for his welcome with diyas and Kada Prasad (Holy sweets). Sarabjeet said, “Kada Prasad is our holy food, and sometimes if a Sikh doesn’t take it, they might feel incomplete as it is a symbol of humanity, togetherness, and equality.”

According to Mr. Singh, Langar is the serving of blessed food first started by the first gurus of Sikhism in the late 1400s. They serve it after Ardaas for everyone present at the Gurudwara despite color, race, gender, sexuality, and economic status. People could take as much as they wanted from the buffet and take it home after everyone had eaten.

The Langar at Gurudwara had five different types of sweets including Matthi (salty biscuit), Chai (Indian tea), two different types of vegetables, lentils, rice, roti (Indian tortillas), sweet orange rice, kheer (rice pudding), and much more eatery for free for people to come and enjoy. They also served langar while people were sitting down with chaos (buttermilk) and water.

There were four people with a small pack of four bowls with different food items mentioned above. Mr. Singh said anyone could help with food, bring food, and make food if they like, although they have to clean their feet and hands before coming into the kitchen and helping the people.

There are also Maharashtrian ways of celebrating Diwali at the Gurudwara, Pratibha Parab; a Maharashtrian family said they celebrated Diwali because Lord Ram (God) with his wife Sita, and his brother Laksman returned to India from Sri Lanka after 14 years in the rescue of Lord Ram’s wife from Ravan (the ten head devil God) (happened in the late Before christ era). They celebrate Diwali by doing Ganpati aarti chanting symbolizing peace, and Laxmi aarti, chanting representing their money and power.

Chanting (Path) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YH97pw0DBIQ

Chanting (Kirtan) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEhzTaqEQLM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_szGt4zxn8&t=330s

Ramayana to know more about Ram and its history - https://asiasociety.org/education/ramayana

Indian Calendar Days and Months - https://www.prokerala.com/general/calendar/hinducalendar.php?year=2021&mon=november&sb=1

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