Columbus City Council members are considering allowing residents to set off fireworks for an upcoming Hindu holiday.
The council will consider a resolution at a meeting at 6 p.m. Wednesday that would allow the use of fireworks to celebrate Diwali, which falls on Nov. 14 this year. City council member Elaine Hilber said that the resolution only pertains to the 2020 celebration of this holiday.
The city’s firework ordinance states that consumer fireworks may only be set off at dates and times that are set by state statute.
According to the state statute, these times are:
June 29-July 3, from 5 p.m. to two hours after sunset
July 4, from 10 a.m. to midnight
July 5-9, from 5 p.m. to two hours after sunset
Dec. 31 at 10 a.m. to 1 a.m. on Jan. 1
State code also mandates that a person “may not ignite, discharge or use consumer fireworks after midnight or before 9 a.m.” on holidays. On days that are not holidays, consumer fireworks may not be set off between 11 p.m. and 9 a.m. Aside from the above protected dates, cities are allowed to restrict the usage of consumer fireworks by ordinance as they see fit.
At the council’s Oct. 20 meeting, two city residents from Shadow Creek, Dhruv Kohli and Shruti Gour, requested that fireworks be allowed for celebration of Diwali. Gour is the board secretary for the Shadow Creek Homeowners’ Association. Their request, however, is not limited to that residential area.
Hareen Illa, sports secretary of the Indian Association of Columbus, Ind., said that the holiday, which he called a “festival of lights,” celebrates a Hindu god, Lord Rama.
“He returned to his ‘hometown’ after being exiled for many years,” Illa said. Rama fought with the demon king Ravana, he said. On his way home after the victory, Rama was welcomed with the celebration of Diwali.
Illa said that after offering prayers and thanking Rama for blessings, Hindus then celebrate with fireworks. He said that as they do this, they welcome “all the good into the house” and symbolically burn bad thoughts.
He said that Hindus use a variety of different fireworks, depending on where they live and what they can afford. Some use rockets, he said, similar to those seen on the Fourth of July.
The scale of these Diwali fireworks, however, may not be as massive as those seen on Independence Day.
“At an individual level, when we do this, it is nowhere close to what we’d want Fourth of July, because that’s a really huge, huge thing. So it’s comparatively much more calm, and even if there is a rocket, it’s not several of them going at the same time,” Gour said.
Kohli said that the city’s firework ordinance was recently amended to be more strict, hence the reason for their request.
“Everybody I spoke to in the community is very appreciative of the fact that the fire chief and the fire department is thinking about safety for everybody, and we definitely respect that,” he said. “And really the reason to come out and ask for this resolution is that we don’t break the law, and we follow what is allowed.”
City attorney Alan Whitted advised that the council has discretion for use of consumer fireworks. He also provided a list of items that are not counted as consumer fireworks under Indiana Code and are therefore not restricted by the local ordinance. The list includes wire sparklers, illuminating torches, snakes or glow worms, smoke devices and trick noisemakers.
Whitted asked if the items on the list might satisfy residents’ needs for the holiday. Gour said that she could show the list to other community members and see get their opinions. Kohli noted that some people might not understand the differences between list items and consumer fireworks, and there might not be enough time to communicate these differences before the holiday.
“We informed Shadow Creek Farms,” he told the Republic. “And basically we told them that ‘This is a list that’s allowed, per the law. And what we are requesting for is to allow other fireworks as well.’”
It was agreed upon that a request might be made to allow consumer fireworks for the holiday and that city council could vote on a resolution for that allowance Wednesday.
The times sought will be 7 to 10 p.m. Nov. 13 and 14,as Diwali is typically celebrated on both the day of the holiday (Nov. 14, in this case) and the day before, Kohli said.
“I can promise that we would be making sure that people in the community know what times are allotted, what days are allotted, so that proper precautions can be taken,” Gour said.
City council member Tom Dell said that the city needs to be conscious of the different cultures living in the area.
“You need to make exceptions, you know, to this, just in order to be more welcoming and more friendly and a more open society,” he said. “We’ve got people now from all over the world. We’ve got to be more sensitive to the fact that they celebrate their important dates as well as we do.”
“I don’t want Columbus to be perceived as not a welcoming community and one that doesn’t celebrate all of the cultures that we have and the diversity that we have here. And Diwali is something that you guys have celebrated every year in Columbus the same way,” Hilber said.
City council member Frank Miller expressed some concern that if the council allows consumer fireworks for Diwali, other groups might approach and ask why they didn’t allow usage for their holidays. He wondered how broad of an exemption the city should give.
Hilber, however, said, “I think we’re actually going to be hard-pressed to find a dominant religion here in Columbus that utilizes fireworks as a part of that actual religious practice.”
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What: Columbus City Council meeting
When: Nov. 4 at 6 p.m.
Where: The Cal Brand Meeting Room of Columbus City Hall.
How to watch: Columbus city council meetings can be watched both live and as archived videos at www.columbus.in.gov/video/live-streaming/.
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According to an article by the Washington Post, the date of Diwali is celebrated not just by Hindus, but also by Jains and Sikhs. Interpretations of the holiday vary by religion and by region.
While some Hindus celebrate it as the return of Lord Rama after exile, others in South India celebrate it as the day Krishna defeated the demon Narakasura and freed 16,000 girls the demon had held prisoner.
Some in the west, both Hindus and Jains, celebrate it as the first day of the new year. Other Hindus, in Nepal, call the holiday Tihar and worship the goddess Lakshmi on that date.
For Jains, the holiday is referred to as Mahavira Nirvana Divas and marks the day Mahavira, the last Jain spiritual leader, "attained physical death and final enlightenment."
For Sikhs, the day is called Bandi Chor Divas and marks Guru Hargobind’s return to Amritsar after unjust imprisonment in Gwalior for many years.
"The distinctive occasions celebrated on Diwali all celebrate the triumph of righteousness, often represented by light," the article adds. "For many Hindus, light symbolizes Rama’s righteous defeat of the evil king Ravana, and for many Jains, light symbolizes Lord Mahavira’s spiritual liberation (nirvana). More broadly, the traditional lighting of lamps signifies how light vanquishes darkness."
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