Sri Lankans in Indonesia came together last Saturday (10 November) at the Sri Lanka Embassy premises at Jalan Diponegoro, Jakarta to celebrate Deepavali – one of the most important and colourful festivals in Sri Lanka's and the worlds religious calendar.
The celebration included Hindu religious observances including the Pooja led by Swami Surya, Bajan and some delightful traditional dances with guests being served traditional Tamil cuisine amidst colourful Deepavali decorations.
Sri Lanka's Ambassador to Indonesia Dharshana M. Perera in his remarks emphasized the relevance of the universal message of Deepavali as elaborated in President Maithripala Srisena's special Deepavali Message – 'the victory of light over darkness, knowledge over ignorance to inculcate noble values such as spiritual wisdom and discipline in the hearts of the people' and emphasized the importance of 'good overcoming evil, knowledge and wisdom overcoming ignorance to pave the way for a better world for ourselves and our children.' The Ambassador, referring to the Celebration of 'Diversity' initiative launched in 2016 by the Embassy where the Sri Lankan community in Indonesia comes together to celebrate each other's festivals of Vesak, Ramazan, Deepavali and Christmas noted, 'while each of us are grounded faithfully in our own respective spiritual traditions, we as individuals and as a community come together through this initiative to share the joys of what is important and special to each other thus strengthening unity within our diversity'.
As with past events, this year is Deepavali celebrations had the involved partnership of the Sri Lankan community and in this instance especially the Hindu community living in Indonesia and joined by those belonging to all other religions of Buddhism, Christianity and Islam.
