THE City of Bacolod will celebrate the Diwali Festival every second weekend of November.
Councilor Sonya Verdeflor, who authored the amendment of City Ordinance (CO) No. 08-14-694 Series of 2014 or the Diwali Festival, said that the Diwali Festival celebration was made an annual event by virtue of CO 08-14- 694 and celebrated between mid-October and mid-November, to coincide with the Hindu Festival.
“In order to prepare the Filipino-Indian community in Bacolod City and the Bacolod City government for the celebration of the Diwali Festival, it is imperative to give a fixed date in the tourism calendar of Bacolod City for the celebration of Diwali Festival,” she said.
The city council earlier approved on third and final reading the amendment of Section 3 of the ordinance to celebrate the Diwali Festival every second weekend of November.
Verdeflor 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 said the Diwali Festival celebration supports the city’s aim to be the tourism capital in the Western Visayas region.
Verdeflor added that the preparation and conduct of the festival celebration shall 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 (AFINO), 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. (MAP)