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Live entertainment, dance performances, light displays and lessons about Indian heritage were shared at the 2004 Diwali Night, sponsored by the UM-St. Louis Indian Students Association.
Over 250 students, staff and faculty attended the event in the Pilot House on Saturday, Nov. 6, to celebrate Diwali Night. Of those that attended, approximately 30 people participated and helped organize the event.
Shikhar Mishra, criminal science teaching assistant, described the purpose of Diwali.
"This is a festival of lights, to conquer goodness and evil. There is a story behind it that says that there was a ruler whose wife was abducted by a demon king. The ruler attacked the king and got his wife back and on the day there was this great festival," Mishra said.
According to the Indian Students Association's event brochure, the festival of Diwali invokes the removal of darkness, ignorance, wickedness, violence, greed, envy, suffering and all other negative elements from the face of the earth through the light of knowledge. The word "Diwali" means 'row of lights' and on the day of Diwali, Indians all over the world place lights or burning candles around their homes.
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