In his invocation to the Diwali celebration Saturday night, Seetal Erramilli said Saturday's football game against Wisconsin game was much like the Hindu holiday.

"It's an epic example of good over evil," said Erramilli, president of the Hindu Students Council, evoking laughter and a few cheers from the crowd.

Almost 200 people gathered in the Pasquerilla Spiritual Center to celebrate Diwali with the student council. The room was decorated with brilliant colors and strings of lights to accompany the holiday murals on the walls.

Erramilli said that Diwali is a Hindu celebration of light much akin to a New Year's celebration.

"We're looking forward to a prosperous new year," he said.

Diwali was celebrated with a candlelight service in front of Old Main last Tuesday, the actual day of Diwali.

Anjali Majumdar (freshman-premedicine) said that Diwali is usually celebrated with fireworks in India, where Hindus can more easily focus on the light aspect of the celebration. "If it was India, they would have had the candles lit on Old Main all night," she said.

Saturday's celebration began with puja, a prayer, followed by aarti, a song that everyone in attendance participated in. A skit illustrating the origin of Diwali followed. It depicted how Prince Ram won Princess Sita by picking up a bow and breaking it while stringing it for her father.

Ram, played by Erramilli, and Sita, played by Priyanka Tailor (junior-biology), were wed in the mock traditional ceremony, and those in attendance at the celebration showered them with flowers as they walked up the aisle.

The skit was followed by traditional Hindu singing and dancing.

Rishi Das (junior-information sciences and technology) and Majumdar choreographed and performed a semi-classical dance. They wore bells around their ankles to accompany the Indian music and presented red and yellow flowers at the end of the dance.

"The flowers are supposed to represent fire," said Das, relating the spiritual dance to the holiday's light theme.

Four girls closed the celebration with an energetic Dandiya dance. The girls held wooden sticks and clicked them together or against each other's in time with the music.

Divya Sinha (freshman-premedicine), one of the dancers, said that using wooden sticks is common for Dandiya dance. She said that she learned how to dance mainly by coming to events similar to this one.

Thenu Chandrasekar, a Hindu Students Council events chair, said that a mix of both students and State College area residents attend the Diwali celebration. Chandrasekar said that it takes about 30 or 40 people about a month and a half to plan the event.

Ashley Sweeney (junior-geography) is not Hindu but has attended Hindu events in the past to see her friends perform. "I like the dancing," she said. "It has a lot of energy."