Claps, twirls and snaps: Desis of Doylestown celebrates Bucks County’s South Asian community by hosting Garba

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More than 200 people dressed up in their best sarees and ghagras Friday night to participate in Garba, an Indian circle community dance that celebrates a Hindu goddess and marks the passage of time.

Participants danced in concentric circles twirling, clapping and snapping in a sweeping movement from side to side.

Desis of Doylestown, a Bucks nonprofit that counts among its members people of Bangladeshi, Indian, Nepali, Pakistani and/or Sri Lankan descent, hosted the event at Unami Middle School in Chalfont, Bucks County, to raise money for their fourth annual free Diwali celebration at the Pearl S. Buck House on Oct. 27.

Friday’s event, planned by Desis of Doylestown’s youth group, is just a small taste of what the holiday looks like in India and, more specifically, in the western state of Gujarat, said Darshana Patel, secretary of the Desis of Doylestown board. There, tens and thousands of men and women gather in communal spaces and dance the entire night for nine nights in veneration of Navaratri, or the festival of nine nights, which is dedicated to the divine feminine supreme Durga.

For Patel and other members of the organization, the goal of celebrating this and other holidays is to educate and share more within and beyond the local South Asian community.

Desis of Doylestown’s mission is to achieve recognition and awareness of the South Asian community in the Central Bucks area. Paree Pasi, co-founder of the organization, was a sophomore at Central Bucks West High School in 2021 when she petitioned the school board to add Diwali to the school calendar. The petition was ratified, and that very year the organization was formed and it celebrated its first public Diwali celebration at Burpee Park in Doylestown.

At that celebration, organizers said they expected 200 attendees. When more than 450 came out to mark the Hindu holiday that celebrates the triumph of light over darkness, the nascent organization realized “people need this,” co-founder Sheela Rai said.

Rai said part of their efforts is about making their children “not feel like they’re outsiders.”

“Desis are Pennsylvanians, part of this community. We are integral to the community,” Rai said. “And like even the act of Diwali on the calendar, the annual Diwali party that we have, the celebration, the kids… feel like this is part of the year, like this is who we are as Americans, which is what I wanted.”

Pasi, who is 19 and currently a sophomore at the University of Pennsylvania, said she has already seen the impact of her organizing on her 11-year-old younger brother. All of his friends know what Diwali is, and teachers lead the class in discussions about it and creating crafts.

“You can see the change generationally that’s happening,” she said. “When I was 11, I went to school [and] I never talked about it. I’m not coming from a religious background, too, where I’m coming with, like, a bindi on my forehead or anything like that. I went to school like it was any other day, and that was the problem, right?”

Aparna Nair, president of Desis of Doylestown, has lived in Doylestown for 20 years. She said she’s seen the South Asian community grow a lot over that time, and is excited to see how the organization is creating deeper connections among South Asians throughout the county as well as among non South Asian residents.

Nair said she also appreciated being able to have the Garba fundraising event at Unami Middle School in Central Bucks School District.

“One of my goals, I tell folks, is not to just get Diwali approved as a holiday on the calendar, but what does it really mean? Right?” she said. “So I’ll give you a simple example. Two years back, Diwali was approved. It was a day off, but my son had a flag football final match, so now I had to tell him to choose. Would they have that on Christmas? No, they wouldn’t. So I think it’s more than just getting it approved. It’s more community understanding, it’s more engagement. And for me, it’s more about are the schools embracing different cultures? And I think they are. They’re beginning to do that.”

Aditi Ramamurth, 15, is the president of the Desis of Doylestown youth group and a sophomore at Central Bucks East High School.

She helped plan Friday’s event, and said she has also felt firsthand the impact of having Diwali be a part of the school calendar, and being able to talk about the holiday with friends who aren’t familiar with it.

“It was just wonderful to feel recognized,” she said. “I think it gives me a big sense of wholeness, I guess, and a complete sense in my life.”