Three years ago, Haddonfield resident Aparna Sarin had moved to Haddonfield and wanted to celebrate Diwali, the “festival of lights” holiday observed by Hindus, Buddhists, and Sikhs to name a few that celebrates light overcoming darkness.
At the time, she had just moved to Haddonfield with her family and was thinking of how she would celebrate Diwali? In the previous years, when they lived in cities like Boston and New York, there were big festivals and celebrations happening throughout town that she could take her family to but to her knowledge, there weren’t any big celebrations like that happening in Haddonfield.
So she decided to create her own.
It started small, with a simple question that she sent to around five friends in town: “Would you do an Indian Bollywood dance, flash mob on Kings Highway?”
“It was very much like a homegrown community-based kind of event spread by word of mouth, and then I tapped into a couple of other resources,” Sarin said.
Her friends agreed, and everyone brought five more people to join in the dance. There were no announcements made on social media, only through word of mouth, and on a random day in late fall, the first Diwali flashmob took place and people broke out into dance on Kings Highway.
Sarin was raised in New Dheli, India, and she shared that where she grew up, Diwali is a 30-day celebration. Her family tradition was playing three-card poker, which people took very seriously, dancing, and painting diyas, which are decorated tea lights that illuminate homes and driveways for the whole month.
At last year’s celebration, people got to paint decorative patterns for Diwali, festival of lights.
As per tradition, participants got to decorate tea lights that were used to light up the driveway and house area afterwards.
Aparna Sarin decorates her house for the Diwali celebration.
Dancers celebrate the end of a successful flashmob last year with henna tattoos.
She shared there are also colored powders and sands that people use to create patterns and intricate designs to decorate the entrance of your home which blow away with the wind over time.
“You make them, and you put hours into making them,” Sarin said. “It’s another way to make your house inviting and celebratory.”
Following the first year’s success, last year’s flash mob ended with a backyard party that brought together the community to celebrate Diwali that featured henna tattoos, and mandala art for battery operated tea lights that were later used to line the driveway.
The event has become something that residents look forward to, and though Sarin may orchestrate it, she emphasized that it is something that could not be done without the eagerness and effort of the participants. People have asked about (and are welcome to) attending the practice meetings that happen leading up to the event even if they aren’t able to dance on the day of just for the community aspect of it.
This year, the flash mob has been approved to take place in mid-October, though the exact date will remain a surprise.
“If we posted the date in the (Facebook) group, it’s no longer the flash, it’s just the mob,” Sarin explained.
This year, she took off work for Diwali.
“I can tell you that is literally the greatest source of happiness with this,” Sarin said. “It really became not about Diwali or one specific thing but just the fact (that so many people were willing to participate) … how incredibly lucky we all are.
“I was telling my daughter, ‘Your friends aren’t from India, don’t speak Hindi, aren’t Hindus, don’t celebrate Diwali but the amount of enthusiasm and happiness and willingness to celebrate this culture is incredible.'”
Though the flashmob may not be as grand as some of the celebrations she has attended in the past, where it felt like a mini-India, it was a stark difference between how she had celebrated in the cities compared to being in Haddonfield.
“I would have probably had a small-ish event in our home, cooked a feast and made home-made deserts, play three-card poker for an hour and then go to this very, very well-organized, crowded event where I didn’t know anybody,” Sarin said. “It wasn’t a personal event, it’s very much like I was part of a crowd. It’s very cool to see your country represented in this way, but it doesn’t feel personalized, and this (the flash mob) is so different from that.
“There’s so much more of a sense of community in this small town than there can be in a city with 10 million people.”
