Indian expats illuminate Abu Dhabi with Diwali traditions and festive cheer

Abu Dhabi: Abu Dhabi is lighting up for Diwali. The festival falls on Sunday, November 8, and celebrations across the UAE begin the week before. At the BAPS Hindu Mandir in Abu Dhabi, families are invited to celebrate Diwali and other celebrations from November 6th to 10th, with no entry fee.

Malls have embraced the season with colourful decorations and activities for visitors of all ages. At WTC Abu Dhabi, festive shopping has been turned into a family-oriented experience.

In Indian schools, children have spent weeks preparing for the festival, making paper lanterns and creating handmade decorations to brighten their classroom walls.

The celebrations have also extended into workplaces, where Indian employees have shared their traditions with colleagues from other nationalities. Dressed in colourful festive attire, colleagues have marked the occasion together, exchanging sweets and enjoying a taste of Diwali.

But the festival isn’t only lived in temples and malls. For many of the capital’s Indian residents, it happens in apartments and villas, in kitchens, and in the courtyards where neighbours gather.

For Riti Bahel, a senior manager living in the capital for 7 years now, Diwali in Abu Dhabi begins with marigolds. Yellow ones, strung through her apartment alongside rangoli, fairy lights and diyas, just as her mother once did back home.

“Somehow, it’s all part of the festive excitement,” she says. “I think those little things make it feel a little more like home.”

She isn’t hosting a house full of guests. She decorates anyway. “I want my home to feel exactly like the home I grew up in.”

Across the city, Vanitha Vinod’s Diwali starts with a broom. Cleaning comes first, then marigold garlands, an oil bath, manjal dosa, and a lamp lit beside a rangoli at the entrance. The kitchen fills with the smell of chakli and besan ke laddu, the scents she links most strongly to the festival.

Their stories reflect two different traditions of Diwali, one rooted in northern India and the other in the south, but the feeling of Diwali remain the same in the homes of Indian expatriates in Abu Dhabi.

Finding the festival

Vanita finds the festive spirits within her community. Neighbours gather to burst crackers, swap homemade sweets, play cards and hold a karaoke night with their families. “Celebrate together and distribute sweets,” she says, describing how she brings Diwali into her home.

Riti has stopped looking for the joy of Diwali elsewhere. “I’m still looking for that one special place,” she says. “But for me, Diwali has always been about home. So, I’ve stopped looking for the festive feeling outside and started bringing it home.”

She said that marigolds are not easy to find. “Sometimes you have to make your way to Perumal and stand in a queue just to get your hands on them, because not many places stock these flowers.”

For last-minute shopping, Riti either goes through the clumsy shelves at Adil supermarket or even rely on the quick delivery apps in UAE. She said has a dedicated Diwali section on its app.

Vanita described the feel of Diwali is within the simple elements such as the smell of chakli, known as murukku in South Indian households.

Her community comes together to celebrate the festival, she said. The festivities include neighbours bursting crackers, exchanging homemade sweets, playing cards and organising karaoke nights with their families.

For festive shopping, she turns to Lulu, where decorations and ethnic wear imported from India are easily available.

What is harder to recreate?

Despite the celebrations in Abu Dhabi, both residents said there were aspects of Diwali back home that were difficult to replicate.

Riti said she misses visiting a temple during the festival and bursting crackers with her sister, as she did during childhood and visiting relatives while exchanging gifts.

“You don’t realise how precious these little things are until you are away from them,” she said.

For Vanita, the biggest challenge is the lack of space for large community gatherings. In India, she recalled how residents would come together in a hall or open ground to celebrate, with everyone contributing towards the arrangements.

“That is something challenging here,” she said.

Living away from home

Living abroad has also influenced how the two residents view festivals and their significance. For Riti, being away from India has made her appreciate festive moments and the company of loved ones even more.

“I think today I value those moments and the people around me so much more,” she said, describing her Diwali celebrations in Abu Dhabi as “a home away from home”.

Vanita, meanwhile, said her outlook on festivals had remained largely unchanged as UAE is her second home. She expressed gratitude to the country's leadership for providing an environment in which expatriate communities can celebrate their cultural and religious festivals.

For her, Diwali in Abu Dhabi is “peaceful, without having to miss India”.