When the Festival of Light visited the Home of Gingerbread
The city of Leicester was dealt a crushing blow recently. Fear not, Gary Lineker isn’t moving back any time soon, but it was announced that 2025 would come to pass as the first year that there would be no fireworks or stage entertainment as part of its Diwali festival – pretty key ingredients for one of the biggest outside of Asia. Yet all was not lost. Enter Grantham, a little less famous East Midlands metropolis, to pick up the baton.
Richard III‘s reburial and Premier League glory have made Leicester headline news over the last decade, but it’s the Asian community that have been part of its fabric for generations. A semi-snub to their biggest day was rightly met with shock and sadness, so what about Grantham’s credentials?
Until 2022, this historic market town was the home of the Gravity Fields Festival every other October, until the powers that be decided to cancel it indefinitely. Grantham is in fact hosting Thatcher Fest, to mark a century since the iron lady’s birth. A worthy effort, but a divisive one, and obviously not a long-term replacement for Gravity Fields, which was a real feather in the town’s cap, celebrating its most famous son, Isaac Newton, whilst making science the epitome of cool.
So that’s Grantham’s recent events history covered, what about Diwali? First, a quick RE lesson. It’s all in aid of the god Lakshmi, and traditionally celebrated by Hindus, Sikhs, along with the odd Buddhist, over five days. It also falls on a different day each year, with October 20th being the 2025 installment. With the aforementioned Thatcher fest already earmarked for the marketplace on that date, a single day on the 13th would have to do.
The posters and social media sites advertised a heady mix of music and dance, crafts, card making, henna, face painting, Indian snacks and an Indian market; a combo only the Festival of Light could provide. Although the weekly Saturday market took place as usual, there was still room for all of this to run alongside, and so a small section of the town came alive for seven hours with a celebration that’s been going on for some 2,500 years.
Participation in the traditional dancing was encouraged but not mandatory, but there were plenty of crowd members willing to give it a go once the experts had strutted their stuff. A real musical treat was the Indian-Italian fusion, to which a description here couldn’t do justice, but if your lugholes ever get the chance you’ll be instantly smitten. Amongst the traditional craft stalls, there was a miniaturised temple at which you could wave a candle in the air and make a wish. The fact that this experience was completely free typified just what Diwali means to the Asian community, and what a kick they get from simply sharing it with others.
As for the food, it’s almost needless to say that it was on a different level. If you’re anything approaching a connoisseur of South Asian cuisine, you’d taste why in one bite. Pakoras and bhajis can so often be such arid affairs, but there was a moisture to the batter that coated the soft delights beneath. However, the real hats off were to the lamb spring rolls, which combined a delicate, doughy texture on the outside, with subtly spicy aftertastes of keema within. Doubtless the various curries on offer were an inspiration, and even the hometown of gingerbread could learn a culinary trick or two from that.
If we’re going to level one criticism at Diwali in Grantham, it’s one that’s out of the festival’s hands. Unlike cities, footfall isn’t guaranteed in towns on days like this. This is partly down to the catch-22 of locals complaining about nothing going on, yet when it does they stay at home, something that’s far from unique to these parts.
But that’s more of a debate for a topical news show or sociology class. In the meantime, Thatcher Fest has got one hell of an act to follow. Diwali, you did Grantham proud.
The Early Whistle 