Preparations for Diwali are underway at Hindu temples across the Triangle as the Hindu Society of North Carolina marks its 50th anniversary. The festival runs November 6 through 10 this year, bringing together worshippers in a region where more than a dozen Hindu places of worship now serve the community, many in western Wake County.
For society co-founder Saroj Sharma, that landscape is far removed from the North Carolina she encountered in 1972, when she had no temple to visit for prayer. Her husband, Ganga Dhar Sharma, died earlier this year at 100, shortly before the society celebrated its anniversary. She continues to attend every morning for worship, food offerings to the gods and time with people she considers family.
The organization grew from gatherings of roughly a dozen people in the Sharma home for religious study, prayer and singing. In 1976, about 20 people agreed to establish the nonprofit, with Ganga Dhar as its first president. As attendance increased, meetings moved into rented halls and then an old church near Raleigh’s Pullen Park. The Sharmas and three or four other families pledged their homes as collateral to finance that purchase. They later made the same commitment to acquire land in Morrisville and build the Triangle’s first Hindu temple.
The temple brought different Hindu traditions together because the community was initially too small to support separate temples for individual gods, according to longtime member and treasurer Suvas Shah. That inclusive approach remains visible in its many deities. Saroj and Ganga Dhar also taught Hindi to children, while he presided over weddings, births and funerals for decades. Saroj said he married thousands of couples, sometimes later officiating at their children’s weddings.
Diwali celebrates the triumph of light, goodness and knowledge over darkness, evil and ignorance, said Viren Patel, an outreach volunteer at Morrisville’s BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir. Observed by Hindus as well as Jains, Sikhs and some Buddhists, the festival also emphasizes fresh beginnings. Society volunteer Mahesh Verma said families clean their homes, prepare fresh food and purchase clothes. The Gujarati New Year falls on November 10 this year.
At the BAPS temple, Patel expects families to prepare more than 15,000 food items as expressions of devotion, with children participating. Offerings will form a mountain of food that includes chocolate and motichoor laddu, sweets made with fried chickpea flour and sugar syrup. Other traditions include lighting lanterns and worshipping Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth and prosperity. Verma’s family offers silver coins he said have been passed down for seven generations.
The expanding celebrations accompany substantial population growth. U.S. Census Bureau figures show Wake County’s Indian population rose from approximately 17,000 in 2010 to more than 80,000 in 2025. About 70 percent of county residents of Indian descent live in Cary, Apex or Morrisville.
October events included the Hum Sub Diwali festival, which attracted tens of thousands to Koka Booth Amphitheatre. Cary also held its first town-hosted Diwali festival at Downtown Cary Park this year, Councilmember Sarika Bansal said. She estimated attendance at 1,000, with visitors staying to dance despite chilly conditions.
Morrisville Councilmember and society member Satish Garimella said schools, Indian food, social activities and places of worship help attract families to the area. He described the society’s role as connecting communities across India’s varied cultural and religious traditions, continuing the purpose established in the Sharma home five decades ago.
