Celebrating Diwali at the V&A Waterfront – an Arrangement of Music, Colour and Dance!

The V&A Waterfront ampitheatre was vibrant with colour and sound on Sunday 22 October as we joined in on the Diwali celebrations – a Hindu festival of light with music and dance!

The event was hosted by the Hindu Association of the Western Cape (HAWC) in collaboration with the South African Hindu Maha Sabha and Consulate General of India in Cape Town. The performance feature of the show included musical and dance items rendered by vocalists Nuur Leeman, Fayyazi Mohammed, Christopher Naidoo, Lilaven Gangen and Renu Joshi. There was also Vedic chanting rendered by the Sathya Sai Seva organisation as well as dance items beautifully performed by Nateswhar Dance Academy, Vadhini Indian Arts Academy, Parklands Hindu Cultural Society, Taare and Araadhana.  


The program for the day also featured a dance routine workout by Bollywood Fitness. Their performance included an interactive dance session with a few audience members who all competed to win a prize, lead by the charming Sanvir Manilal. Sanvir was also the event's MC – his invisible backstage presence proved to be humorously entertaining!
Thank you to the hosts of this event for bringing Diwali to the broader public. Another great thanks goes to Ahneesh Valodia from Taare for inviting Cultsha Kennis to these celebrations. It is partnerships like these that strengthen the Cultsha Kennis vision of bringing together various creative and cultural communities in the Mother City – a partnership which has continued for 3 years now! See Taare featured on a previous Cultsha Kennis blog-post: https://cultshakennis10.blogspot.co.za/2015/07/a-taare-tale-bringing-bollywood-dance.html

DID YOU KNOW? Diwali is the Hindu festival of lights celebrated over a 5 day period every year in autumn in the northern hemisphere and spring in southern hemisphere. Diwali spiritually signifies the victory of light over darkness, good over evil, knowledge over ignorance, and hope over despair. The festival also commemorates the return of Lord Rama (along with Mother Sita and Lakshman) from his 14th year long exile and vanquishing the demon-king Ravana. In joyous celebration of the return of their king, the people of Ayodhya, illuminated the kingdom with earthen diyas (oil lamps). Following this practice, Hindu communities all over the world place an abundance of lights on housetops and around temples and buildings. A large part of the Hindu community in Cape Town resides in Rylands, Athlone who regularly congregates at the Shree Vishnu Mandhir, Shree Radha Krishna Mandhir and Sri Siva Aalayam temples. 












Comments

  1. Anonymous27 September 2018 at 04:27

    Hello,
    I read this article and found really useful. Appreciation to the author. And for further reference, you can see my article on Diwali:
    http://onlinepurohit.com/diwali-celebration-2018-history-significance-gifts-greetings/
    Hope you will get more information here.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Dialogue with Clive Ridgway: Creativity, Country-Rock and the CTSS!

Image
Clive Ridgway is a South African musician and singer-songwriter of 70s-born country-rock band 'Rocking Horse'. He is also the founder and teacher at the Cape Town School of SONGWRITING, and is the author of a songwriters' guide 'Crack The Songwriting Code'. Clive is also the Program Director of one of the Mother City's newest and most well-loved radio station, Smile 90.4FM, and is a loving husband and father of 3 children, 2 boys and a girl. Cultsha Kennis loves a good story about the coming years of accomplished musicians! Read about Clive's musical journey below. Cultsha Kennis: Take us through your musical journey from childhood. How did you first fall in love with music? Clive: I’ve been involved with music most of my life. I grew up in a simple household with loving parents. They allowed me and my brothers to listen to pop music, watch movies, play football, read comics and generally have an adventurous childhood. We were encour
Read more

Let’s Talk Theatre Again #6: A Dialogue with Bianca Flanders on Theatre, TV and Her New Children’s Book!

Image
Bianca Flanders is best known for playing strong, emotive female roles in the multiple theatre productions we’ve seen her in over the years. After seeing her play an ‘onnie’ in The Riviera on SABC 2, we thought it’s time for a dialogue with her!   Cultsha Kennis: Congratulations on publishing your children's book,  Pumpkin Finds Her Queen.  Tell us what inspired you to write this book and why you've also written the Afrikaans version,  Prinses Pampoenpit .  BF: When I was a child I absolutely hated my hair. I was also an avid reader, but as an adult I remember that none of the characters in my books looked like me. I wanted to write a book about a topic that I struggled with as child, and I wanted to create a hero for kids who perhaps haven't felt represented. I wanted to write the book that I never had.  Cultsha Kennis: You've also been part of the cast in David Kramer's  Orpheus in Africa . How do you go about preparing to perform a character
Read more

Quanita Adams Receives a Standing Ovation for At Her Feet at the Baxter Theatre this Weekend!

Image
On Saturday 1 December 2018, Cultsha Kennis had the extraordinary opportunity to finally see  At Her Feet , a long-awaited show which we had been dying to see since first reading the playscript in 2014! At Her Feet is a one-woman show written and directed by Nadia Davids and is performed by the well-loved Quanita Adams, an artistic collaboration which the 2003 Cape Times referred to as a "triumphant combination", and Cultsha Kennis agrees! The title of the production is derived from a Hadith (record of words and actions of the Prophet of Islam), "Paradise lies at the feet of thy mother" and tells the story of 4 contemporary Muslim women in Cape Town whose lives are affected by the 9/11 happenings and the honour killing of a Jordanian girl, Azra Al-Jamal.   Using poetry and the scarf as a recurring motif throughout the show, the audiences were shown what makes a Cape Muslim experience. Auspicious rituals were referenced, such as the sehri meal during Ramad
Read more