The Holiday at the Arboretum exhibit is back at the Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Garden! The 2022 holiday exhibit includes a Christmas village, a Musical tree, displays for the 12 days of Christmas.The DeGolyer house is decorated with a new seasonal exhibit, the Artistry of Faith and Culture with displays on Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and Diwali. The thinkIndia team curated this first-ever Diwali exhibit at the Botanical Garden.

Diwali is India’s most important festival of the year, a time to celebrate the triumph of light over darkness, knowledge over ignorance, and good over evil. Widely observed among over a billion people from a variety of faiths across India and its diaspora, the five days of Diwali are marked by prayer, feasts, fireworks, family gatherings, rangolis (designs made on the floor out of colored sand, powder, rice or flower petals), and charitable giving, centering on traditions such as buying new things and wearing new clothes, and other practices to attract the goodwill of spirits.

Diwali is perhaps best known as a festival of lights. It gets its name from the Sanskrit deepavali, (deepa meaning “lamp” avali, “row”) and is known for the brightly burning clay lamps that celebrants line up outside their homes, representing the inner light that overcomes spiritual ignorance.

The Diwali display includes paintings featuring Hindu gods and goddesses, dolls representing Hindu gods and goddesses, lamps, garlands, and fabrics.  The links below provide fascinating stories from Indian mytholoogy on the artifacts on display in the Diwali exhibit.