{"id":22419,"date":"2016-10-18T11:02:46","date_gmt":"2016-10-18T05:32:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/globalpress.hinduismnow.org?p=22416&amp;preview_id=22416"},"modified":"2016-10-18T11:02:46","modified_gmt":"2016-10-18T05:32:46","slug":"diwali-lights-spark-festivities-across-britain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/?p=22419","title":{"rendered":"Diwali lights spark festivities across Britain"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"div_storyContent\">\n<p>Major towns across Britain such as\u00a0London, Leicester, Birmingham and Manchester sparked off Diwali festivities on Sunday evening, with the Indian festival increasingly becoming a mainstream event joined by people of different ethnicities and religions.<\/p>\n<p>London\u2019s Trafalgar Square was transformed into an Indian square, with a riot of colours, cuisine, music and dance providing the backdrop as mayor Sadiq Khan lit a lamp to launch the annual event that attracts thousands. Pattering rain failed to dampen the enthusiasm.<\/p>\n<p>More than 30,000 people gathered in Leicester\u2019s arterial Belgrave Road, the home of Indian and Asian business and culture, as the lights switch-on ceremony supported by the local council marked a new high for a town that was historically uneasy with immigration.<\/p>\n<p>Jodeen Kaur, 11, a pupil at a Leicester school, won a competition to press the button to switch on thousands of lights and launch a fireworks display. Diwali in Leicester is reputed to be the largest outside India.<\/p>\n<section class=\"story_top_news\">\n<div class=\"news_photo\">\n<div style=\"width: 408px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\" td-modal-image\" src=\"http:\/\/www.hindustantimes.com\/rf\/image_size_800x600\/HT\/p2\/2016\/10\/17\/Pictures\/_6ee7c8e8-9467-11e6-89e7-7a6d6b3d3438.jpg\" width=\"398\" height=\"600\" \/><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">A drummer seen at the Diwali celebrations in the British town of Leicester on Sunday evening. (Facebook)<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<p>Besides setting up a Diwali Village, a highlight of the festivities in Leicester was the participation of Leicester City Football Club, which won\u00a0this year\u2019s Premier League. Manager Claudio Ranieri brought the trophy to the switch-on ceremony.<\/p>\n<p>Ranieri said: &#8220;It&#8217;s fantastic and I&#8217;m proud to be here. Diwali is a huge festival and I am enjoying learning about the new culture. I&#8217;m very proud to bring the Premier League trophy here and also very proud to be able to help switch on the lights at this fantastic festival.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The Trafalgar Square\u00a0event, organised by the London mayor\u2019s office, featured traditional dances from several Indian states. Besides Khan, the gathering was addressed by London\u2019s Indore-born deputy mayor for business, Rajesh Agrawal.<\/p>\n<p>Besides Bollywood music and garba, an Indian street food market offered an array of food and non-alcoholic drinks. Revellers had the chance to don a sari, learn a Bollywood dance, and participate in yoga and meditation sessions for beginners.<\/p>\n<p>Similar events were organised\u00a0in towns such as Manchester and Birmingham, which have large minorities of Indian origin.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Major towns across Britain such as\u00a0London, Leicester, Birmingham and Manchester sparked off Diwali festivities on Sunday evening, with the Indian festival increasingly becoming a mainstream event joined by people of different ethnicities and religions. London\u2019s Trafalgar Square was transformed into an Indian square, with a riot of colours, cuisine, music and dance providing the backdrop [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22419"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22419"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22419\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}