Bollywood music blasted through the quad as curious students lined up to taste classic Indian snacks — sweet ludoos and savory sev — and paint small clay lamps called diyas, Oct. 20. These traditions are among the many that take place during the Hindu holiday of Diwali.

Diwali lasts five days and marks the beginning of the Hindu calendar. This festival of lights represents good triumphing over evil, and it is closely tied to Lakshmi, the goddess of prosperity and beauty. The first day of Diwali marks the day she emerged from the ocean and was born. The third day of celebration, the main day, is commonly known as Lakshmi Puja. A puja is an act of worship that often includes rituals to connect with a specific deity. Hindus pray to Lakshmi because it’s believed that she visits homes and blesses families. The diyas light up houses in order to encourage Lakshmi to visit their home.

In Hindu mythology, Diwali is typically associated with the story of Lord Rama, a reincarnation of Vishnu – the Hindu god of preservation – returning to his kingdom of Ayodya after a 14-year exile in the woods. The lit diyas are meant to guide Lord Rama back home from the forest, as well as encourage Lakshmi to visit families’ homes.

Riddhi Bhavsar (10) and Siddhi Bhavsar (10) organized the on-campus celebration to share these cultural traditions with the Westview community and make their customs more well-known.

“What we want [is to] show off Indian culture to the school [and] start a line of Indian events in the school,” Riddhi said. “We haven’t seen many Indian-specific events happening, so that’s something we wanted to just bring out and share it with others.”

The team aimed to make this holiday more well-known by sharing facts about Diwali at their booth.

“Anyone can come [to the quad] and just have fun, be with their friends, [and] learn something about our culture,” Siddhi said.

With the help of Avi Patel (10), Sidhaarth Parthiban (10) and Rishi Shah (10), they set up two tables filled with common cultural items. One table had sev, a snack made with chickpea flour and molded into a crispy noodle, and laddu, a dessert made with sweetened flour and rolled into a ball. The other was lined with hand-held clay diyas for students to decorate.

Initially, the event was just a passing thought shared between the two sisters. However, when it was announced on Oct. 6 that Diwali was an official state holiday, they knew they had to make it happen.

“Governor Newsom just passed the bill saying that Diwali is officially a state holiday, so, knowing that it’s on the 20th, we wanted to celebrate on that day,” Riddhi  said. “It was just kind of a really small idea, but the day that they announced this, I texted [my] group of friends and I [said], ‘Guys, it’s officially a state holiday. We have to celebrate it now.’”

However, without official club status, Siddhi and Riddhi had to pay out of pocket for everything.

In the future, they said they plan to make a club for Indian culture and hold future events, hoping to showcase more traditional celebrations.

“We plan on making a club for next semester, so we can start involving ourselves in more events,” Siddhi said. “Having a club makes it a lot easier to do these events. We hope to pick and choose one [holiday] for [each] semester and try and celebrate that with [students].”