Culture

Anushka Soni | Staff Writer

Diwali, an Indian festival, was celebrated in Los Angeles this year on Nov. 4, at the Hollywood Sikh Temple. Diwali is the festival of lights, sweets, and gossips and is typically celebrated on every 15th of the eighth month of the Indian Calendar. It is the darkest day of the lunar month. Diwali is celebrated with fancy lights, lanterns, and traditional candles called diyas.

Each Indian religion has a different way of celebrating Diwali. At the Hollywood Sikh Temple, there was melodious chanting called Kirtan followed by the Path, the book of Gurbani, and concluded with Ardaas. Mr. Sarabjeet Singh is one of the temple’s Gurus. When asked why Diwali is celebrated in Sikhism, he responded with a smile and said, “Diwali is a festival of togetherness and light for us.”

There are also Maharashtrian ways of celebrating Diwali at the Gurudwara, Pratibha Parab; a Maharashtrian family said they celebrated Diwali because Lord Ram (God) with his wife Sita, and his brother Laksman returned to India from Sri Lanka after 14 years in the rescue of Lord Ram’s wife from Ravan (the ten head devil God) (happened in the late Before christ era). They celebrate Diwali by doing Ganpati aarti chanting symbolizing peace, and Laxmi aarti, chanting representing their money and power.

Diwali was first celebrated in 1619 when the Sikh people’s sixth Guru, Hargobind, was released from prison alongside 52

CULTURE Diwali in Los Angeles

Anushka Soni | The Corsair Candles outside the Hollywood Sikh Gurudwara, on Thursday, Nov. 4, in Hollywood, Calif. princes by the Mughals in India. The people who lived in Amritsar, North India lit up the Golden Sahib Darbar Temple for his welcome with diyas and Kada Prasad, or holy sweets. Sarabjeet said, “Kada Prasad is our holy food, and sometimes if a Sikh doesn’t take it, they might feel incomplete as it is a symbol of humanity, togetherness, and equality.”

According to Mr. Singh, Langar is the serving of blessed food first started by the first gurus of Sikhism in the late 1400s. They serve it after Ardaas for everyone present at the Gurudwara despite color, race, gender, sexuality, and economic status. People could take as much complimentary food as they wanted from the buffet. The leftover food was distributed at the end of the event.

The Langar at Gurudwara had five different types of sweets including Matthi (salty biscuit), Chai, two different types of vegetables, lentils, rice, roti (Indian tortillas), sweet orange rice, kheer (rice pudding), and much more eatery was there. They also served langar while people were sitting down with chaos (buttermilk) and water.

There were four people with a small pack of four bowls containing the different food items. Mr. Singh said anyone could help with food, although they have to clean their feet and hands before coming into the kitchen.

LA Eats Japanese Food Festival

Michael Beeson | Staff Writer Bryan Antunez | Staff Writer

On Sunday, Nov. 14, the Japanese Restaurant Association of America held its annual L.A. Eats Japan food festival in Little Tokyo. The festival was cancelled in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. During this year's L.A. Eats Japan event there were approximately 10,000 guests throughout the day, according to laeatsjapan.com.

L.A. Eats Japan combined many different aspects of Japanese culture from Taiko drumming to cosplay, anime, and Japanese dishes such as Okonomiyaki (Japanese pancake) in order to create a rich and fulfilling experience for festival goers.

Many local food stalls catered the event, Shin-Sen-Gumi Yakitori, Shake Ramen, Amami-Ya Baby Castella, Sushi Tsujita, and more.

While Japanese food was the focal point of the event, other Japanese related items were represented including manga, Pokémon cards, and plush toys of famous manga characters. The festival also had a number of performances by musical groups such as Grammy award-winning artist “A Taste of Honey", a 70s disco band known for their chart-topping song “Boogie Oogie Oogie.”

The event was hosted in Little Tokyo, a historic district in Downtown Los Angeles, which is the heart of the largest Japanese-American population in the country. At the center of the neighborhood is the trendy Japanese Village Plaza which is host to countless Japanese restaurants, shops, cultural centers, and religious sites. Many Japanese Village Plaza businesses catered the L.A. Eats Festival.

For many vendors, this was their first time at this event. Ulyses Arechiga is the founder of the anime collectible store Pika Dude. Arechiga sold Pokemon cards, Pokemon plushies, and other items from various anime and manga titles at the event. “I think Pokemon and anime in general is a different expression of art and culture. It encompasses everything Japan has to offer,” Arechiga said.

Melvin Adams, who attended with his group of friends, was very excited to see the love for Japan and anime on full display. For many westerners, anime is their introduction to Japanese culture. Adams hopes that people walked away from the event with a new appreciation for Japanese culture. “I hope people get back with not only what Japan was, its traditions, but also what it is now. With things like anime and cosplay, it’s becoming a lot more of what it is outputting to the world," Adams said.

The festival also hosted a cosplay contest. Cosplay is the act of dressing up as a character from a fictional piece of media. Whether it’s video game characters or anime characters, cosplaying goes hand in hand with anime culture. The cosplay community is a very dedicated, traveling to various events and creating meticulously detailed costumes.

Mia Madura participated in the cosplay contest. Madura said, “It feels like there’s more of a sense of community of getting to meet other people who are interested in the same thing. And obviously admiring some very talented cosplayers.”

For more information on upcoming events, visit the L.A. Eats Japan offical website.

Maxim Elramsisy |The Corsair Musical performances, a martial arts demonstration and a costume contest provided entertianment at the L.A. Eats Japan Festival in Los Angeles, Calif., on Sun. Nov., 4.