• Indians living in Richmond, Virginia are ready to celebrate the 35^th Festival of India on 24 and 25 September 2016
• The celebration began on 1981 with an aim to share and celebrate Indian culture with the non-Indians of the country
• The event will feature music, dance, food and health session

September 23, 2016: The world has always been amazed by Indian culture and embraced India. Some special events and festivals around the globe are simply wonderful that celebrate India with pomp and vigour.

On September 24 and 25, Virginia is all set to celebrate the 35^th annual 'Festival of India'. It was started in 1981 when a few families residing in Richmond gathered together to celebrate a day with music and dancing at the John B. Cary elementary school. What was a gathering of some 20 Indian families back then, expanded up to 100 families in 1984 as reported by the chairman of the Hindu centre of Virginia, Vijay Ramnarain.

The History–

As the festival gradually became extremely popular and now is an eagerly awaited annual celebration for the Virginians, it holds the record of nearly 20,000 visitors in two days last year in the 'Greater Richmond Convention Center'. Back in 1980, the Indian descent people that lived in the city of Richmond was about 606 as shown in the census. Now it has leapt to 13,000 Indian and that makes Virginia possess the sixth highest Indian population, by percentage, reported richmondmagazine.com.

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From the very beginning, the festival gained quite a huge non-Indian attendance as many people flocked over and the aim has always been to showcase Indian culture and sharing that with the fellow neighbouring countrymen- stated Ramnarain.

The Event and the Celebration–

The theme of the celebration in 2016 is "Festivals of India". It is to reminisce that just like America; India is also a land promoting multiple cultures and the celebration aims to view a glimpse of the various festivals celebrated in different regions in India at different months and times in the year- explained Ramnarain.

According to the reports, the event will feature dance, music, craft, and food along with yoga and information session while focusing on health and wellbeing. Proceeds will be collected by the 'Hindu Center of Virginia' that is a non-profit organisation promoting and teaching Indian culture and language to the community of Richmond.

– prepared by Antara Kumar of NewsGram. Twitter: @ElaanaC