Hindus mark Diwali with colourful spectacle |04 November 2019

A scene from the fashion show (Photo by Thomas Meriton)

A large crowd, consisting of Hindus and friends, gathered at the NSC Hall at Roche Caïman on Saturday night to celebrate Diwali with a beautiful and colourful display.

Unfortunately this year, the Hindu community could not host the Diwali celebrations at the Roche Caïman swimming complex, as has been the tradition every year for quite some time, due to the potential risks of rain.

Diwali is a Hindu festival symbolising the victory of light over darkness, good over evil and knowledge over ignorance.

The event is also known as the Festival of Lights and is one of the most popular festivals in Hinduism. It includes the exchanging of gifts, sweets and well wishes.

The event on Saturday started off with the lighting of lamps by a group of ladies followed by a short prayer.

Present among the crowd were the Minister for Environment, Energy and Climate Change Wallace Cosgrow, Indian high commissioner to Seychelles General Dalbir Singh Suhag, chairman of the Hindu Council Narasimhan Ramani, chairman of the Seychelles Inter-Faith Council (Sifco) and members of the diplomatic corps.

In a message read out by Minister Cosgrow, President Danny Faure expressed his best wishes to the Hindu community on the auspicious occasion.

“Our country is strengthened by our diversity and contribution from all its people. Celebrating this auspicious occasion in Seychelles serves as an opportunity to commemorate shared values of kindness, compassion and empathy. It is an important reminder of the values that connect us across countries and cultures,” the message read.

General Duhag on his part stated: “May this Festival of Light brings happiness, peace and success in your life. It is always a pleasure to be among you all and it gives me utmost pleasure to see that the Indian community here celebrates all of the functions and festivals with so much enthusiasm.”

Mr Ramani, chairman of the Hindu Council, expressed his disappointment at not being able to celebrate the events near the swimming pool but acknowledged that it was necessary due to bad weather.

He then stressed on the importance of togetherness, harmony and peace.

“We would like to see peace prevailing everywhere. In Seychelles we have people of different nationalities, different colours and religion and who are speaking different languages, but we are all here living very much in harmony. This is not found anywhere in the world and we would like to see this harmony continue on.”

“No human is better than another and no religion is better than another, we are all equal,” Mr Ramani observed.

The bright and lively cultural show which punctuated the night included a fashion show displaying a number of Indian garbs in a rainbow of colours worn by children and their mothers.

Songs and dances followed suit along with glittering sparklers displayed by joyful children.

The night culminated with distributions of sweets brought in from India for the occasion and a show of fireworks.

Elsie Pointe