On Wednesday, Nov. 2, the Museum of Fine Arts hosted the event “Diwali: The Festival of Lights,” completely free and open to the public. The night consisted of a series of educational events on Diwali, a holiday about the triumph of light over darkness and good over evil, celebrated by Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, and Jains all around the world.

Perhaps the most interesting of the events, ranging from talks to art demonstrations, were the dance performances. The night offered two separate performances: “Story Illuminated: Words and Dance for the Divine” and “Odissi Classical Dance and Sambalpuri Folk Dance.” “Story Illuminated” centered on sixteenth-century India, telling the story of Hindu temple dancers. Whilst dancer Anjali Nath danced a classical kathak dance, author Anjali Mitter Duva read excerpts from her book, “Faint Promise of Rain.” Since the performance was in one of the auditoriums, the free tickets ran out quickly for each of the three performances, and made it a bit difficult to snag seats.

However, the Odissi and Sambalpuri dances were held in the open Shapiro Family Courtyard, with audience members sitting and standing on the floor surrounding the dancers at eye-level. The closeness to the dancers created a uniquely warm atmosphere and added to the beauty of the jangling and colorful costumes. The group’s leader prefaced the dance with explanations of the stories the dances tell of Hindu gods, with this particular Odissi classical dance centering on a tale of the goddess Krishna saving an elephant from an alligator. The dances hail from Odisha, India, found in the eastern part of the country. At the end of the performances, audience members were invited to dance with the group, and many children and parents hopped along to the rhythm.

Some of the events focused on the visual arts. One of the more interesting events of the night was a talk held by artist and teacher Sundanda Sahay, explaining her work making Madhubani, or Mithila, a painting style originating in northern India. As Sahay explained, the painting style first began by artists doing their work on walls. A second form is made with white rice arranged on the floor.

The art form was mainly performed by women at home in secret, using whatever materials they had for colors—usually dyes from vegetables—until acrylic paint was invented. The art form was traditionally passed down from mother to daughter, although in recent years men have begun making progress in this style of art. Sahay points out that the art form is unique in that it manifests the country’s caste system: upper castes had access to more colors and more mythological stories to illustrate, whereas members of the lower classes did simpler designs with fewer colors.

In between events, many attendees checked out the South Asian wing of the MFA galleries. Although guided tours were offered to give the gallery context, plenty of museum-goers took to exploring on their own hands. However, the South Asian section of the museum is painfully small—essentially a single room. Perhaps the most tremendous interest in Diwali—over a thousand people said that they were going on the Facebook page—will lead to the MFA growing its collection from a part of the world so rich with history and culture.
To check out upcoming events at the museum, visit http://www.mfa.org/programs/special-event.