Indian Student Alliance (ISA) will have an executive council meeting this Friday in Room A326 to plan a Diwali celebration. Diwali is a Hindu festival that means the festival of lights. Officer and junior Aryaman Gupta said it is similar to Christmas. Traditionally, gifts are exchanged to family members and friends. Last year, the club members celebrated independently of each other due to organization conflicts. This year the holiday lands on Oct. 23 and the club members would like to play with fireworks for their celebration. Paige Wehr, club sponsor and senior reminded the students that such an event would have to take place off school grounds due to the threat of arsen.

Although there are many conflicting legends of the origin of the festival, Wehr researched the holiday and found the general overview to be a harvest festival celebrating the new year, the start of winter and the return of Lord Rama to his kingdom Ayodhya. Diwali is considered the festival of lights because the people of Ayodhya lit lamps to guide Lord Rama back home.

Nida Khan, club president and senior said, “You just light them (candles and lanterns) and then religiously you would pray but we don’t do that at our club so we would just light them and have fun.”