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Robyn Edie / Stuff
Diwali festival committee director Himani Mishra Galbraith is excited about the first official Invercargill celebration in Diwali on Saturday at ILT Stadium Southland.
In the spirit of cleansing the soul and the home of the new season, the Diwali Festival will give the people of the southern United States a true experience of Indian culture.
The festival will showcase all that is Indian with food stalls, music, lights and colors, while engaging in kapa haka, rock dancers and others. New Zealand cultures.
The president of the Southland Indian community, Ranna Joshi, said New Zealand is a very multicultural country. So it was really necessary to celebrate with Southland's first Diwali Festival.
"Invercargill has fallen far behind, but the community is growing, we thought it was a good time to start sharing our culture."
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The organization is expecting around 2,000 people to participate in Saturday's event at ILT Stadium Southland.
The director of the committee, Himani Mishra Galbraith, said that in the 29 states of India, different dialects were spoken, different religions were celebrated and everyone gathered to celebrate the festival.
"The idea is to celebrate the diversity of the regions we have, there are many different cultures."
Galbraith said that Diwali's feeling was a sensory overload with flavors, sounds, colors and smells cleansing the soul.
Sharing these cultural events and traditions with the people of his new country was crucial. It was also important to educate people about culture while maintaining tradition.
"We have been integrating for a long time, but it is important to preserve our identity and our traditions."
While the festival would not host the food and culture of all states, Galbraith said that they had really tried to showcase as much of the culture as possible.
She and her team hoped that New Zealanders "would become an integral part of our lives as we became a part of Kiwi life".
"It's nice to share that with the Kiwis."
The festival was supported by the ILT Foundation, Community Trust South and many others.
Galbraith said that his community's dream would have been that if he had not had the support of the community.
Adrick John, a festival committee member, said it was the perfect way to share New Zealand's growing Indian culture, even to help some Kiwi-born Indians learn more about their culture.
"We want to attract Indian children born here who do not know much about our culture, we want them to connect to our community."
