Sharing Her Celebration: Diwali, much like other diverse cultural holidays, is important despite little knowledge and awareness of it

Heavily-taped boxes from my grandma bursting with crunchy chewda, cavity-worthy ladoos and spicy chakli — homemade Indian snack foods — arrive at my doorstep each November.

The mail marks the beginning of Diwali — an annual Indian holiday that celebrates the coming of the new year with a festival of lights and represents the victory of light over darkness. A holiday that should be better understood in Prairie Village.

I’m biracial and half Indian, and my family has celebrated Diwali my entire life.

The holiday lasts five days during the end of November. On the third night, my family holds a laid-back — about as non-traditional as it can get — at-home puja, or ceremony, where we honor the Hindu goddess Lakshmi, who is associated with good fortune and prosperity. We wear colorful kurtas and sit around my mom’s makeshift bedroom altar.

The whole ritual lasts less than 30 minutes, but for me it symbolizes the importance of upholding generational traditions.

Diwali doesn’t come with bright greeting cards or signature music on every radio channel, but it’s still more meaningful to me than Easter or Halloween. As much as I love to celebrate other holidays, I wish there was greater recognition for Diwali in the media.

For me Diwali is a time to reflect on my heritage. Each year when it comes around, I’m reminded to take the time to learn more about and stay connected with my heritage through my mom and grandparents, something that can be easy to forget having grown up in the Midwest while being heavily immersed in American culture.

I used to avoid talking about Diwali at school. I’d tiptoe around using Indian words like pooja or bharatanatyam — a traditional Indian dance form my mom taught — anything that was too hard to pronounce for my white friends.

Even though they all knew I was biracial, I hated the follow up questions and attention that came from bringing up anything Indian that was unfamiliar to them — even one of my favorite holidays.

Next year, New York will make Diwali a state-recognized holiday, so kids in public schools will get the day off and attention will be drawn to a holiday that is often otherwise overlooked. I hope that Kansas and other states follow suit and that one day this could even be done on a national level to send a clear message that all cultures, religions and beliefs deserve to be treated with equal respect.

This is important when you consider that several widely recognized holidays — two being Easter and Christmas — are rooted in Christianity. Although this is understandable because of our country’s founding, that doesn’t mean we can’t evolve to include more holidays. I mean, Hanukkah isn’t even on that list considering the fact that one in ten Americans celebrate it, according to NationalToday.com.

In addition to this, another reason for the lack of awareness surrounding smaller-scale holidays is that they remain primarily non-commercialized. Diwali’s customs or traditions can’t hold a candle to the amount of money materialistic holidays like Thanksgiving or Christmas generate for the country’s economy.

Culture and heritage are huge factors in the foundation of most people’s identities, and if holidays similar to Diwali become more widely known, those who celebrate them will feel more comfortable talking about it, expressing themselves and their beliefs.

Now that I’m older, I love bringing up Diwali to friends or classmates that don’t know anything about it. Rather than avoiding follow up questions about my culture, I smile when I’m asked them. Answering feels like opening people’s eyes and mind to a holiday that would otherwise fly under the radar.

Cultural holidays like Diwali that are less commonly celebrated at East should receive equal acknowledgment and recognition as the big-name ones. Let’s make a conscious effort to create a welcoming holiday season for all.