Caroline Lee, Contributing Photographer

The Yale Hindu Students Organization hosted the 20th Annual Diwali Puja at the Omni New Haven Hotel on Friday.

The event, organized in collaboration with the University Chaplain’s Office, celebrated Diwali, also known as Deepavali, the Hindu festival of light officially on Tuesday, Oct. 21. Student volunteers decorated the space with flowers; diyas, which are oil lamps; rangoli, intricate geometric patterns drawn in powder; and plates of sweets.

“Diwali isn’t just one thing for us. It is a worship service. It is a cultural event. It incorporates so many people’s memories of the traditions,” Asha Shipman, the director of Hindu life at Yale and the celebration’s organizer, said.

Attendees participated in a puja, Hindu worship rituals, devoted to Maha Lakshmi — the Hindu goddess of wealth, prosperity and well-being — and enjoyed a traditional vegetarian dinner. The puja also included a performance by Yale Dhvani, a classical Indian music group.

Diwali is the largest annual Hindu celebration in India, where observers line paths to their homes with oil lamps and feast with family and friends. By lighting lamps, worshippers aim to symbolize the awakening of “Divine Knowledge” as well as the destruction of “negative binding forces” in life — such as darkness, ignorance and suffering — as explained in packets distributed out at the celebration.

The event drew over 400 registrations on Yale Connect, with attendees ranging from undergraduate and graduate students to full families. It was sponsored by the Chaplain’s Office, the Asian American Cultural Center and the Undergraduate Organization Funding Committee.

Members of the Hindu Students Organization, or HSO, board led the attendees gathered on the floor in a puja service. Attendees of the event received packets detailing the history and culture of the 20th Annual Diwali Puja, including prayers and devotional chants for attendees to read and follow.

Leaders invoked, welcomed and praised the goddess Maha Lakshmi through prayer.

“We treat the divine as if she’s a traveler coming a very long way over the dusty roads to where we are. And so just like a traveler, you’d say, your clothes are dusty, come one, sit, rest your feet, wash your hands, drink something,” Shipman said.

Shipman also stressed that many students, unable to return home for the holiday, find the familiar rituals to be a way to connect with a new Hindu community at Yale.

“If you grow up chanting and if this was something that was joyful for you and your family, you will reexperience that joy, and you will reexperience that connection with your family and your culture and your spirituality,” she said.

Shipman reflected on the dynamic nature of Diwali celebrations at Yale, noting how over the years, the program has evolved to reflect what HSO leaders found important. Shipman said she empowered students — rather than priests — to lead the rituals.

“This is theirs. It’s ours, but it’s theirs to lead,” she said.

For Treasurer of Yale Dhvani Anjal Jain ’26, the event allowed her to continue traditions she had already practiced at home, including making rangolis and decorating her house with her mom, she said. She added that with Yale’s large South Asian community, it was easy to find a community to celebrate Diwali with. 

As part of the puja, Yale Dhvani performed songs of praise with traditional instruments including the mridangam and the tabla, as well as accompanying Hindustani or Carnatic vocal singing, according to Ayush Iyer ‘26, the dance group’s president.

Students said they found the Diwali event to be a peaceful experience.

Milind Kapadiya ’29 described how through this event it was nice to “find solace” amongst a “tight-knit” community at Yale.

“There’s no negativity here,” Iyer said. “Everything at the Diwali, at the Omni, at Yale. Everything is left at the door, and everyone just comes as they are, and you are welcomed as you are.”

Hindu students at Yale have been hosting religious events since the 1990s, according to the Hindu Life at Yale website.