Diwali Festival set on November 7-9

Photo from Diwali Festival Facebook page
Photo from Diwali Festival Facebook page

BACOLOD City will hold the 7th Diwali Festival on November 7 to 9 with activities organized by the local Indian community.

Vice Mayor El Cid Familiaran said Monday, November 4, that the local Indian community is now preparing their activities for the 7th Diwali Festival.

He said that last week, the City Council approved the financial assistance of P1.5 million for the Diwali Festival, but they still need to liquidate their previous budget.

“One of their representatives went to the City Mayor’s Office yesterday to facilitate their documents for the said event,” he added.

Familiaran noted that in 2018, the local Indian community did not hold its festival after they failed to liquidate their expenses in 2017.

In 2017, the festival’s opening was led by Punjabi Khalsa Diwan officials along with city officials at SM City with the exhibit dubbed as “Glimpse of India’s influence on Asean countries.”

Diwali is the biggest festival in India.

In April, the City Council approved the amendment of Section 3 of City Ordinance (CO) No. 08-14-649 Series of 2014 or the Diwali Festival which was authored by former councilor Sonya Verdeflor to celebrate the event every second weekend of November.

Verdeflor said the Diwali Festival celebration was made into an annual event by virtue of CO 08-14-694 and celebrated between mid-October and mid-November to coincide with the Hindu Festival.

She said the Diwali Festival or the “Festival of Lights” was first celebrated by the Filipino-Indian Community of Bacolod City last November 2013, in partnership with the Bacolod City Government.

She added that the Diwali Festival celebration supports the city’s aim to be the tourism capital in the Western Visayas region.

Verdeflor said the preparation and conduct of the festival will be jointly supervised by the Bacolod City government under the City Mayor’s Office and the Filipino-Indian Community through the Association of Filipino-Indians of Negros Occidental, the Punjabi Khalsa Diwan and/or such other accredited Filipino-Indian Community in Bacolod City, and assisted by a duly-organized committee composed of both the public and the private sector, by virtue of an executive order to be issued by the city mayor.

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