U.S. President Joe Biden on Monday hailed the start of the five-day festival of Diwali — the celebration that symbolizes the victory of light over darkness and is marked by Hindus, Jains and Sikhs around the world, especially in India.
Biden began the White House festivities by lighting a small prayer lamp known as a diya. Several hundred guests — including South Asian administration officials, elected officials, prominent community members and others — wore silks and embroidered finery and thronged the White House’s massive and heavily chandeliered East Room for the occasion.
But Biden used the occasion to shine a light on someone who was not in the crowd: Vice President Kamala Harris, the most prominent South Asian American, who was busy on the campaign trail as the election swiftly approaches. Her late mother immigrated to the United States from what was then the Indian city of Madras, now called Chennai.
“One of the things we bonded over was the role each of our mothers played in our lives,” Biden said. “They come from different places, different generations, different lives, but they shared a basic belief about America: Only in America is anything possible. Only in America.”
And, he said, after hundreds of years of struggle, South Asian Americans have made the U.S. their home.
“Diwali is celebrated openly and proudly here in the White House,” he said. “And by the way, this is not my house. This is your house.”
The festival starts on the darkest night of the year, per the Hindu lunar calendar — October 31, according to the Indian government. The day is a national holiday.
Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, who was visibly moved by the occasion, spoke of how his parents’ faith illuminated their path after they immigrated to the U.S. from India.
“That is the message of Diwali,” he said. ”Choose light always, whatever the future may bring. Whatever the future may bring, it is our light and our fierce commitment to one another that will see us through to a better day.”
And joining the festivities from afar was International Space Station commander Sunita Williams. Her father immigrated to the U.S. from India; her mother, from Slovenia. She spoke to the White House crowd via a recorded message from 420 kilometers (260 miles) above the Earth.
“On this day, I specifically think about my father, who immigrated to the U.S. from India,” she said. “He kept and shared his cultural roots by teaching us about Diwali and other Indian festivals. Diwali is a time of joy, as goodness in the world prevails. I am so thankful to have grown up in a multicultural household where our parents encouraged us to seek opportunities and reach for the stars.”
Monday’s reception marks the latest in a line of presidential celebrations of Diwali that date to President George W. Bush’s time in office. Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump also held Diwali celebrations.
The festival marks the return of the mythical Lord Ram, named in Sanskrit scripture as a reincarnation of the god Vishnu, from exile after 14 years. The people of his kingdom, Ayodhya, lit lamps to illuminate his path home — a tradition that merrymakers continue today with lamps and pyrotechnics. Indian Americans are the largest non-mixed Asian group in the United States, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, with nearly 4.4 million people identifying as 100% Indian in origin.
Today, celebrants around the world honor the occasion with new clothes, extravagant decorations and massive quantities of sugar-laden confections.
This year, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is the top proponent of a Hindu-nationalist movement known as Hindutva, saw a sweet named in his honor. The so-called “Modi Laddu” — the Modi Ball — is made of saffron, clarified butter, pistachios, almonds and rose water.
But there is also a vein of bitterness in India’s observance of this holiday.
Modi was the driving force behind the rebuilding of a Hindu temple in Ayodhya, on what was thought to be Ram’s birthplace. In 1992, a Hindu mob demolished a mosque on that site, prompting deadly religious riots that were the worst since India’s independence, leaving more than 2,000 people dead. Modi spent years raising funds to erect a massive Hindu temple on the ruins. He opened it earlier this year, saying, “Today, our Ram has come.”
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