{"id":29653,"date":"2022-10-27T15:26:55","date_gmt":"2022-10-27T19:26:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/?p=29653"},"modified":"2022-10-27T15:26:55","modified_gmt":"2022-10-27T19:26:55","slug":"the-india-center-celebrates-diwali-with-orange-county-community","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/the-india-center-celebrates-diwali-with-orange-county-community\/","title":{"rendered":"The India Center Celebrates Diwali with Orange County Community"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-29654 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2022\/10\/Diwali1-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2022\/10\/Diwali1-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2022\/10\/Diwali1-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2022\/10\/Diwali1-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2022\/10\/Diwali1-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2022\/10\/Diwali1-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2022\/10\/Diwali1-299x199.jpg 299w, https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2022\/10\/Diwali1-scaled.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>On Oct. 17, 2022, the India Center celebrated Diwali with Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings at the Orange County Administration building in downtown Orlando.\u00a0 It was the second year the India Center collaborated with the Asian Cultural Association, the Orange County Asian Committee, FusionFest and Demings to present \u201cDiwali: The Festival of Lights Celebration\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Diwali or Deepavali is also known as the festival of lights.\u00a0 This celebration of knowledge over ignorance, good over evil and light over darkness is celebrated by the Indian diaspora around the world. Various faiths, including Hindus, Jains, Sikhs and some Buddhists celebrate the holiday. Many families clean their homes to prepare for the holiday and decorate with oil lamps.<\/p>\n<p>The formal ceremony on Oct. 17 included the lighting of a large diya, or oil lamp, by Demings, who remarked that the festival was a time to \u201ccelebrate our differences, but at the same time we acknowledge that we have a lot of similarities as well.\u201d Children from the community presented community leaders with trays that contained traditional Diwali gifts, including rice, a light and ladoo, an Indian sweet.\u00a0 The celebration featured dance and music by the Asian Cultural Association.\u00a0 UCF\u2019s Knights Khayal singing group also performed the classical song \u201cMaha Ganapathim.\u201d\u00a0 Demings presented community organizations with certificates at the end of the ceremony to recognize their contributions to Orange County.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am grateful we brought the community together for these festivities. The music and dance performances, diya lighting and presentation of gifts provided an opportunity for the community to get a glimpse of Diwali celebrations,\u201d said Leila Chacko, director of public affairs for the India Center.<\/p>\n<p>You can watch a replay of the event <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=euVNT3XNK6s\">here<\/a> and a recap <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=tY_pWJiVFiA\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; On Oct. 17, 2022, the India Center celebrated Diwali with Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings at the Orange County Administration building in downtown Orlando.\u00a0 It was the second year the India Center collaborated with the Asian Cultural Association, the Orange County Asian Committee, FusionFest and Demings to present \u201cDiwali: The Festival of Lights Celebration\u201d. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":134,"featured_media":29654,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[38,13,16,5424,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29653","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking-news","category-news","category-political-science-departments","category-the-india-center","category-top-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The India Center Celebrates Diwali with Orange County Community - College of Sciences News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/the-india-center-celebrates-diwali-with-orange-county-community\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The India Center Celebrates Diwali with Orange County Community - College of Sciences News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"&nbsp; On Oct. 17, 2022, the India Center celebrated Diwali with Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings at the Orange County Administration building in downtown Orlando.\u00a0 It was the second year the India Center collaborated with the Asian Cultural Association, the Orange County Asian Committee, FusionFest and Demings to present \u201cDiwali: The Festival of Lights Celebration\u201d. 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