For many New Yorkers from the Caribbean, Diwali is marked with sweet treats like prasad.
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Even though Seema Singh’s home in Richmond Hill, Queens, will be filled with sweet treats this Halloween night, the offerings will be a far cry from miniature candy bars and packs of gum handed out to little ones in costumes.
This year, Oct. 31 also falls on the third and most important night of Diwali, the five-day Hindu festival of lights, and Ms. Singh, who is Guyanese of East Indian descent, will be serving family and friends a variety of Indo-Caribbean desserts, including goja, a fried coconut tart unique to Guyana, along with peera, a version of an Indian dessert called peda, similar to a milk-based fudge.
Recipe: Prasad
An autumn celebration whose date changes from year to year, Diwali is one of the most significant holidays in the Hindu calendar and honors the concept of goodness or light winning over evil or darkness. It is also observed in Sikh, Jain and some Buddhist communities, often with vegetarian feasting and displays of small oil lamps called diyas.
M.R. Ravi Vaidyanaat Šivãchãriar, the director of religious affairs at the Hindu Temple Society of North America in Jackson Heights, said while adherents universally understand the holiday’s Hindu religious principles, there are regional differences in practice.
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