Portsmouth community celebrates 'exciting' traditional festival Diwali after missing out last year due to Covid pandemic

Diwali, the festival of lights and new beginnings, celebrated annually by Hindus, Sikhs and Jains, was back in full swing.

The Portsmouth Hindu Society, established on October 24 last year, was delighted to hold its first in-person Diwali at Fratton Community Centre.

It meant visiting families, buying traditional sweets and holding sparklers, were back after last year’s event took place over the internet due to the coronavirus lockdown.

Guddu Ghosh, who was among the 11 families who helped organise the festival, said: ‘This is the big one for us and something we really look forward to.

‘Everyone comes together, has fun, gets dressed up and eats nice food. It was difficult last year because we were just sat at home and couldn’t do it properly. It was done online from someone’s house but only a few people could be there.

‘So this year it has been exciting to hold our first proper Diwali event which was organised by families in the city.

‘We’ve had a really good turn out with people coming from the community and people from (Portsmouth) university. There was even someone from Malta who came.

‘Our Portsmouth community is quite small and we want to get the message out that we are here and encourage people to come to our events.’

The Portsmouth Hindu Society has already shown the appetite in the community for its events - with its Durga Puja in October proving popular among locals at Buckland Community Centre.

The next big festival will be Saraswati Puja at Buckland Community Centre on February 5.

Sapan Ghosh, another organiser, said the festival had been paid for by the families with plans to make future Diwali events even more special.

‘Hopefully more people can join and donate and we will get bigger and bigger,’ he said. ‘This is only the start for us.’

And with Diwali all about new beginnings and light overcoming darkness it was an apt point.

Diwali also sees a particular honour given to Lakshmi, the Goddess of prosperity. Furthermore, Diwali is celebrated as the day Goddess Durga destroyed a demon called Mahisha.

The festival is celebrated over five days and means different things to different people.

For example, Hindu's honour the return of Lord Rama and Sita to Ayodhya after their 14-year exile.

Sikhs on the other hand celebrate the release of Hargobind Singh, who is the sixth guru, from prison in 1619.

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Jains celebrate Diwali as the moment their founder, Lord Mahavira, attained a state of eternal bliss or nirvana.

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