Celebrating Your First Diwali Away from Home: All You Need to Know

Diwali is the festival of lights in India. As it represents the new spiritual beginnings, it is marked as the Hindu New Year. The celebrations of Diwali are joyous, but if you’re currently living away from India, it can be soulful.

Even though there are millions of people living abroad, expats still try to make a big five-day celebration to enjoy and begin the Hindu New Year. So, If you’re finding the Diwali festival almost upon yourself but fretting about celebrating it alone, don’t be anymore!

Here is a quick guide that can help you bring the most joy to your first Diwali celebrations away from home. 

1) Decorate your home

To begin the celebration of this big festival, it’s time to decorate your home. There is no better way to celebrate the festival of lights than decorating your home with fairy lights. It is one of the best ways to prepare your room and apartment.

When it comes to decorating the lights around your home, there are endless possibilities. You can tape these around your walls or string them up from the ceiling to illuminate the home. 

2) Invite Your Friends to a Party

Festivals are a great time for catching up with friends and family, double the joy. Even if you’re living away from India, you can still catch up with your family and friends on occasion. 

It will be nice to visit your friends or host a small get-together. You can exchange gifts, eat good food, and play cards to celebrate the festival.

3) Prepare traditional food 

There is nothing that can better connect you with your family and routes than food. Therefore, you can consider preparing food that you would like to eat at Diwali back home. Get the recipes from your loved ones or online to prepare some traditional meals to celebrate this festival. 

You can invite your Indian and international friends for the meal as well to introduce them to new flavors and Indian culinary meals. 

You can also learn about the famous mithai to celebrate this festival.

4) Send your warm wishes

Diwali is the occasion to send gifts and envelopes to loved ones to cherish love and care. However, as you are abroad, you might not find a convenient way to send money home easily. It can be stressful at first, but you can check the best money exchange services that offer you the best exchange rates to send warm wishes to your loved ones. Consider Western Union, which offers digital money transfers as well as in-person locations, and allows users to send money to over 200 countries around the world. 

Many Britts have ties to India whether that be family or friends and while you can’t physically celebrate together, you can still integrate them into your celebrations. Many opt to send money for gifts for Diwali or funds for decorations, food, and celebrations. Before sending, check the GBP to INR conversion rate and make sure you’re getting the best value from the money you’re sending to your family. Western Union is a great app and company for these types of international transfers. This way, you can ensure you’re sending your love to your family to help them enjoy a perfect Diwali celebration. 

5) Take the family on a video call

No matter how far you are from our family, technology has covered most of the distance. So, grab your devices and call your family members to let them know you are celebrating the festival as well. 

You can share your experience with them and show them how you have prepared for Diwali as an expat. This way, you can share a strong emotional connection and represent your love for roots and culture to them.