Lucknow on festive mode: As Diwali meets Halloween, the spirit of celebration wins

With Diwali and Halloween falling on the same date (October 31), spooky celebrations got preponed in the state capital. Restaurants, hotels and malls found out different ways to keep the festivities intact.

Pre-celebrations!

“The idea was to give space to the revellers and let them celebrate Halloween in its full colours. We organised two back-to-back parties for our patrons where spooky decor, costumes and music essentially related to the festival was a draw. We had an international DJ Maryana and DJ Izio to add on to the celebrations,” says Jugal Sachdeva owner Neoo Nightclub.

Festivals are a time to bond and enjoy everyone but for kids such occasions are more about fun and enjoyment. Keeping this in mind, malls in the city came up with a series of pre-events. “Be it spooky face-painting, candle making, tote bag screen painting and fashion show, all these events saw a big turnout of kids participating and enjoying the festivities during the weekend at our food joint Dobaraa. The pre-celebrations were organised only to avoid any clash with the two different ideas of festivals,” shared Sanjeev Sarin from Phoenix Palassio.

Giving it a miss

Then those who have been celebrating on the day itself have decided to skip it for this year. Hyatt Regency general manager Roshan Mendonsa says, “Diwali is one of the biggest festivals in our country and is celebrated with much grandeur. So as the clash was unavoidable, we thought to give the Halloween party a miss for this year though since years we have been coming up best parties based on the occasion.”

For educator Ranjeeta Soni and her family it is more the merrier. “My school going daughters loved the idea of celebrating pre-Halloween with much fanfare at a city restaurant and now excitingly wait for Diwali celebrations like every year. So, for them it was a double the celebrations,” she says.