Diwali in UAE: Expats celebrate festival of lights with Indian sweets, fireworks, parades

UAE - As the Indian community celebrated Diwali on Thursday with gusto, the whole city lit up in solidarity.

Supermarkets, restaurants and residential communities glittered with lamps and festive lights to mark the occasion.

With the UAE winning its battle over Covid-19, expats dedicated their weekend to the festivities and celebrations.

Rini Pursnani, who moved to Dubai after getting married, celebrated her seventh Diwali in the city. Although she enjoys marking the festival with her husband's family and friends, she said she misses her folks back home in India.

However, this year, Rini is celebrating the festival with the newest addition to the family - her one-year-old daughter Mehr.

“We’re excited about this Diwali, as our daughter responds by clapping when we wish her ‘Happy Diwali’. We have named her Mehr, which means ‘blessing’ and she surely is a big blessing in our life. She has literally lit up our life and I ensured that she and me dress up in traditional wear. She looked super cute,” Rini told Khaleej Times.

Rini and her family visited a Gurudwara to offer thanks and introduce Mehr to Diwali rituals. This was followed by a family dinner with relatives, fun session of cards and enjoying family time.

Dubai couple Malvika Sengupta and Sreejish Nair, who are spending their second Diwali in the UAE, said they were happy to see the high-octane celebrations this year.

“We are from Mumbai and there’s no Diwali without ‘Faral’ — traditional snacks and homemade sweets, such as kaju katli and kalakand, for us. This Diwali we are going to be with our family and friends, unlike last year due to Covid.

"After lighting diyas and our traditional dinner, we went to Bur Dubai to see fireworks. The kids were very excited. Of course, we are missing our extended family back home in India but the way Dubai celebrates Diwali, we can surely call it our ‘home away from home’,” Malvika said.

Jaya Harikumar, a yoga teacher from South India, who has been living in the UAE for the last 30 years, said festivals are an important way of staying connected to one's roots.

“I am from Kerala where Diwali is not celebrated in such a big way, but because my father was in the army and we lived mostly in north India, we always celebrated Diwali in a big way," she said.

Even after moving to the UAE, Jaya kept up the tradition to educate her kids about the value, culture and rituals of Indian festivals.

"It is important to stay connected to our roots and keep our kids connected to our tradition. It is important to tell them how and why we celebrate,” she said.

This was also the first festival for her three-month-old grandson.

Jaya started her Diwali day by distributing sweets at her workplace - Yoga Studio in Jumeirah Lakes Towers - after which she went home to decorate with rangoli and lights.

“My entire family - son, his family, my mother and my brother’s kids who live here - were dressed in traditional clothes and I was most excited to see my grandson also in traditional wear that I specially got for him. I don’t believe in bursting firecrackers, so we had some sparklers to light up our house. We hosted a family dinner at home and had a safe and happy Diwali,” she said.

Celebrations across the city

Diwali, known as the Festival of Lights, is a major highlight in Dubai’s annual calendar and is being marked across the country over the weekend beginning from Thursday.

The city came alive with a series of spectacular displays at the iconic Burj Khalifa accompanied by Dubai fountain show; a tailor-made show at Expo 2020’s Al Wasl Plaza and Diwali-focussed performances as well as shows at Global Village.

The annual festival also saw fantastic fireworks displays in the backdrop of the world’s largest observation wheel, Ain Dubai, and also at Dubai Festival City.

Apart from the fireworks and shows, the city witnessed city-wide star-studded concerts, parades, food fiestas, luxurious outings and retail offers with prizes galore.