Schahrazade Halfaoui marvels at the joyously relaxed atmosphere of London’s Diwali celebrations.
As a Muslim woman with my hair covered in a colourful headscarf, I was not sure what to expect from the Hindus, many of them from East London, who went up West to celebrate Diwali in Trafalgar Square on Sunday 12 October.
To be honest, even if I were Hindu I might not have expected Diwali celebrations to be taking place that day, since the actual date of the religious festival is not for another two weeks. But just as nobody minded me being there, nobody appeared to mind the change of date, either.
People were greeting one another with ‘Happy Diwali’. I couldn’t help but join in. I was not sure what it meant but that didn’t seem to matter.
My new friends later told me it literally means ‘a row of lamps’, but Diwali is generally taken to mean ‘Festival of Light’, representing the triumph of good over evil.
As it grew dark in the square, there were plenty of lights shining on a mixed crowd – people of all races and religions celebrating alongside Sikhs and Hindus; also a great deal of singing and dancing, copious amounts of food, and a chance for women to relax and pamper themselves in the ‘Asian beauty zone’.
But no London festival would be complete without a word from our ebullient mayor, Boris Johnson. ‘In this dark time that we are in,’ pronounced Boris, ‘I am proud to announce that the Diwali festival brings such joy and light into London.’
As he said this, Mr Johnson was not with us in person; his was a pre-recorded video message. Some communities might have seen it as a bit of a slight. But such was the happy-go-lucky atmosphere of the whole occasion, nobody took offence at the mayor’s merely virtual presence.
Diwali – a light touch festival which anyone can dip in and out of.