Sodexo at Stanford Health Care and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital Stanford blog: Diwali celebration in the Environmental Services department at Stanford Health Care

Diwali, the festival of light, is one of the most significant holidays for the Hindu, Sikhs and Jains community. The event theme is triumph of light over darkness and good over evil. This year it falls on October 19 in the united states while it is celebrated on October 18 in some other countries.

During diwali, homes are cleaned prior to the festival to welcome the goddess of Lakshmi and the smell of food and cookies always fill the entire household. Paper lanterns, clay lamps or electirc lamps and incredible Rangooli (A design on the floor made from colored rice and powder) are used to decorate the household and shopping malls. Rangoli is used as a joyful way to welcome the Goddness of Wealth and Prosperity. Hindu women will adorn their beautiful saris (a traditional Hindu dress), colorful bangles and earrings and Men will wear dhoti (sarong wrapped around the waist and leg) with an oxford shirt.

Today during the Environmental Services department morning huddle, we celebrated the festivity by first showing a video from National Geographic on what is Diwali and how it was celebrated. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrrW3rO51ak. Colleagues were then invited to sample an array of Diwali snack and food which was brought in by our colleagues who celebrated the festivity. We also had bollywood music in the backgound during the event. What a great way to learn and celebrate our diversity!

Wishing all colleagues and readers who celebrated the festivity Happy Diwali. Wishing good health and happiness to everyone!