Hindus Celebrate New Year

October 30, 2006

Author: Judy Wang

Source: Yale Daily News

http://www.yaledailynews.com/Article.aspx?ArticleID=34031

In celebration of the Indian New Year, the Bharatiya Prarthna Society collaborated with the Yale Chaplain's Office to host the second-annual Diwali Pooja celebration Saturday evening.

The Hindu "festival of light" lit up the Davenport Common Room with dozens of candles and attracted nearly one hundred Hindu and non-Hindu Yale community members, event director Govind Rangrass '08 said. Several students who attended Diwali Pooja said they were impressed by how the celebration had been upgraded from last fall's event, but others said there was still room for improvement and they would like to see the event expanded next year.

Rangrass said he founded the event at Yale last year after noticing that while Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year celebration, and Ramadan, a holy month of religious observances for Muslims, were accompanied by prominent celebrations on campus, there were not any special events held to observe Hindu holidays.

"A lot of other religions have their own private organizations put on these events, but the Hindu community had nothing," he said. "Diwali is the perfect occasion for everyone to get together."