Yellow and magenta Diwali dresses, chalk-drawn rangoli on the floor, Henna tattoos and craft tables filled the rooms as Palo Alto held its “Festival of Lights: A Diwali Celebration” on Sunday afternoon at the Mitchell Park Community Center.

The event welcomed people of all ages, bringing the community together to celebrate the holiday. Ruthann Garcia, the Mitchell Park Library Services Manager, said the event was held under Palo Alto’s Celebrating Cultures Initiative.

“We know that this is a holiday celebrated by many who live in our community and in the Bay Area in general,” Garcia said. “It was important to make sure that events that we’re doing do reflect our community.”

Diwali celebrations in Palo Alto have evolved since starting in 2017, bringing traditional dances, activities, and decorations. According to Garcia, these activities are made around a typical Diwali celebration format.

“The music and dance performances are really important to the celebration … and the crafts of the different components of the holiday,” Garcia said. “We’re making lanterns, we have a henna artist giving free henna out, and we’ve got the little dias, the little clay pots that kids are decorating with glitter glue.”

Palo Alto resident Neerav Agrawal said he attended the event after seeing a poster at the library.

“We come to the library quite often, so we saw one of the posters here, as well as online,” Agrawal said. “It’s nice to see all the tables with all the different activities that I could have thought of and these are quite a traditional set of activities that people do in India when it’s Diwali time. I think it’s a great way of bringing all the traditional things to the residents of Palo Alto.”

Diwali lands on a different day every year because it follows the Hindu lunar calendar. According to Garcia, this made it challenging to plan the event’s date.

“We are celebrating about a week and a half later than Diwali landed,” Garcia said. “We knew it was important, so no matter when we do it, we’re still making sure that we acknowledge this holiday that’s celebrated by many who live and work here.”

Agrawal appreciates that the city is hosting cultural events like these.

“We just recently moved to Palo Alto and started coming to this library,” Agrawal said. “I am very happy that we are having such events done at the library and I would absolutely come back here, not just for this event, but for other cultural events as well.”