I had never heard of Diwali until I started working at Williams-Sonoma. Diwali is a major Indian festival celebrating the triumph of good over evil. Businesses shut down, people celebrate with dinners and parties, and exchange gifts.
Each year at work, we celebrate Diwali as many of our engineers are Indian. I missed it last year and this year I helped organize a lunch. We feasted on Indian food, decorated with flowers and lights, and streamed Bollyhood music videos.
Below is our team creating a traditional Indian design with different colorful powders and stencils. Lights were placed around it afterwards since
Diwali means “festival of lights” in Hindi. It's technically five days long, with each day representing a different facet of the festival of lights. In many communities, people pick one day of Diwali in particular to celebrate, often with fireworks and other large public festivities.
Diwali is also an auspicious time for new endeavors, and many people clean their homes and open all their windows and doors to welcome luck and good fortune during Diwali.
I was happy to be able to wear some of the clothes that I bought in India while attending a friend's wedding a few years ago. I was even given a bindi by a friend at work to complete the look.
In multicultural San Francisco, I don't know why I was surprised that Jack's preschool also talked to the kids about Diwali last week.
Happy Diwali!
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