South Asian festivals such as Diwali, which took place earlier this month, are enjoyed at home by a growing number of Wellesley residents. Increasingly in recent years, such occasions also are celebrated at larger community events.

The town doesn’t have official numbers on how many people with South Asian roots live here. But members of the community from India and other South Asian countries who we’ve interviewed say their population in town has grown significantly—from a double-digit number of families to more than 200—over the past 20 years.

General public awareness of South Asian holidays has also risen, with local libraries offering programs such as “paint your own diya (tea light),” and schools adding Diwali to their calendars (Diwali is on the Wellesley Public Schools Religious and Cultural Observances Calendar for 2023-2024). Those celebrating the Festival of Lights get their homes glowing well ahead of the wider light displays across town for Christmas and Hanukkah.

An annual Wellesley Diwali party, which started off as home-based potluck dinners among a few friends and some word of mouth, is now held at larger venues, such as the Italo-American Educational Club or this year, at Needham’s VFW hall. Events such as the springtime Upham Color Run are inspired by Holi, a South Asian festival of colors that celebrates spring, love, and life.

I recently connected with Wellesley Diwali party planners past and present to get an update on this year’s celebration and some history on past community activities. After writing about the Natick Desi Group and attending its recent Diwali party, I reached out to members of Wellesley’s South Asian community to get an update on Diwali festivities that were in the works.

I met in person with Kamana Jain, Nibedita Chattopadhya, and Vandna Bhagat, all members of Wellesley’s South Asian community who have organized past Diwali parties.

Then I followed up by email with Rama Ramaswamy, a co-founder of the Wellesley South Asian Association, which she says was named as such “to be inclusive of the greater South Asian diaspora (Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Tibet).” Ramaswamy was part of the organizing team for this year’s multigenerational Diwali event.

“The purpose for creating this group was to organize cultural opportunities in which our children might partake and get to meet/know each other,” Ramaswamy said. “And similarly, for South Asian neighbors from all over town to meet via celebrating the most well known festivals.”

diwali wellesley — Current Diwali party organizers Rama, Malini, Rashmi, Lavanya, and not shown, Hitaishi (courtesy photo)

Party people

Jain, Chattopadhya, and Bhagat bonded while organizing Diwali events in town over the span of 5 years. Their friendship was apparent in part by the way they kept finishing each other’s sentences during our conversation at Wellesley Free Library.

While residents with South Asian roots may celebrate different holidays depending upon which country or state they are from, Diwali is the big one, and is much more than a one-day celebration. “In India, people exchange Indian sweets for a month. There is a lot of visiting involved,” Bhagat said, adding that the bonding over planning for the Diwali party was very much in that spirit.

“Everyone here wanted to do something, especially for Diwali. One interesting thing about India is that in different states in India we celebrate different festivals, but one common festival is Diwali. Everybody celebrated that,” Bhagat said.

Though as Jain once pointed out, recalled Bhagat, “potluck is not scalable.” Thus the move to bigger venues and the introduction of catering and DJs. Though the organizers tried to keep costs down, such as by making their own decorations, sourcing marigold garlands from Etsy, and picking up vases from Wellesley Recycling & Disposal Facility. They prevented things from getting too crowded by limiting attendees to Wellesley residents.

Wellesley Diwali party, 2018 (courtesy photo)

From there, attendees—including kids—were encouraged to perform at the parties to showcase their talents. Bhagat says her sons learned the Indian national anthem by going to the events, and attendees from other South Asian countries were invited to sing their anthems.

“We are first generation, so we have a sense of growing up in India and celebrating Diwali at home,”Chattopadhya said. “Our children don’t know our festivals unless we make an effort to celebrate them and share with people of similar backgrounds.”

Much of the focus was about the children, with parties featuring game trucks, photo booths, and other activities to keep them wanting to attend events year after year. “Every time we organized the Diwali party we changed the flavor,” Jain said. “It was never the same.”

Kids invited their friends from non-South Asian families as well, spreading familiarity of customs such as Diwali throughout Wellesley.

Community members stay in touch in between events, and while planning for them, via an email list and a Facebook group. As those I interviewed shared, it’s never too soon to start planning for the next big festival.