Diwali festival returns to Long Island, where India-born population is growing

The founding chapter of the oldest national association of Indians in the United States built its flagship event in New York City. But as more Indian people headed east to Long Island, the organization saw an opportunity to chart a new course.

Last year, the Association of Indians in America-New York Chapter brought its Deepavali festival to the Town of Babylon's Overlook Beach for the first time after 37 years at Manhattan’s South Street Seaport. On Saturday, the festival celebrating the Diwali holiday returns to Long Island. 

Harish Thakkat, who served as chapter president from 2018 to 2022, was initially concerned about losing regular attendees. But Long Island proved him wrong.

"You don't know what will happen. It's like starting a business and moving one location to another ... But we have a huge community in Long Island ... it was a great success," Thakkat said. 

The success has been driven by a surging population. The number of Long Island residents born in India rose by almost 16.5% from 2008-2012 to 2018-2022, bringing the total to over 35,000, according to the U.S. Census Bureau's comparison of the two five-year periods.

While New York City hosts a wide variety of Diwali celebrations, chapter president Beena Kothari said Long Island doesn’t offer as many large-scale events to celebrate the holiday. When making the switch, she wanted to bring a sense of home directly to the island’s Indian community.

"New York City is a totally different ballgame. Long Island is more like a family," Kothari said.

What to know about Diwali

Deepavali, widely known as Diwali, takes place at the beginning of the Hindu lunisolar calendar year. The five-day festival runs from Nov. 6 to Nov. 10 this year, but the chapter celebrates during the first weekend of October for more favorable weather conditions. 

While Hindus, Sikhs, Jains and Buddhists celebrate with differing traditions and meanings across South Asia and beyond, the triumph of light over darkness and good over evil is a consistent theme.

The main day, known as Lakshmi Puja, falls on Nov. 8 and marks the beginning of the new year. In many traditions, lamps called diyas are lit to invite Lakshmi, the goddess of prosperity, into the year ahead. The other four days each focus on different forms of renewal and reconnecting with family.

Cultural program

Organizers say the festival celebrates India's diversity.

"India has many states and each state has a different dialect, different language, different people and different food also. So we want to bring that whole experience here," said Jyoti Kothapalli, a chapter volunteer tasked with finding vendors for the event.

During the cultural program, which will run from noon to 6 p.m., children and dance groups will perform Classical, folk and Bollywood dances from a variety of regions including bhangra of Punjab, garba of Gujarat, bharatanatyam of Tamil Nadu and more.

Kothapalli said her family especially looks forward to the rangoli competition, where people draw geometric shapes, lines and dots on the ground using dyed rice flour, lentils, beans and other materials.

"It's a very beautiful art ... when [I] see rangoli from different states, it reminds me of my own," said Kothapalli. The competition is scheduled for 2 p.m.

Food options will include South Indian, North Indian, Indo-Chinese dishes and more.

Attendees will also be able to purchase traditional Indian art, jewelry, clothing and other items from vendors from across Queens, Nassau and Suffolk.

Concert and fireworks finale

British Sri Lankan singer Arjun is performing at 6 p.m. The 36-year-old is known for mixing South Asian genres and languages like Tamil, Hindi, Punjabi and Sinhalese with pop and R&B.

His most popular song, "Suit Suit," with Guru Randhawa, was featured in the Bollywood film "Hindi Medium" in 2017 and received over 122 million streams on Spotify.

Topping it all off will be the fireworks finale at 7:15 p.m.

"It is very important to us back in India ... five days in a row, we have firecrackers," said Kothari, noting the Hindi term is "pataka."

Thakkat shared similar sentiments, describing a childhood in India where he’d wear new clothes, visit family members and conclude the night with fireworks in the yard to welcome the new year.

He says the 45-minute firework finale keeps Indians and non-Indians alike returning to the festival each year.

"We used to do fireworks at home on a very small scale. So now doing it on a large scale over here, it feels like home," Thakkat said.