{"id":8424,"date":"2009-11-06T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2009-11-06T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/2009\/11\/06\/princeton-universty-hosts-diwali-appoints-hindu-chaplain-in-university-chapel\/"},"modified":"2009-11-06T12:00:00","modified_gmt":"2009-11-06T12:00:00","slug":"princeton-universty-hosts-diwali-appoints-hindu-chaplain-in-university-chapel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/2009\/11\/06\/princeton-universty-hosts-diwali-appoints-hindu-chaplain-in-university-chapel\/","title":{"rendered":"Princeton Universty Hosts Diwali, Appoints Hindu Chaplain in University Chapel"},"content":{"rendered":"

Source: mailto:vchander@princeton.edu<\/a><\/p>\n

PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY, November 7, 2009: Princeton University will host its official celebration of the Hindu festival of Diwali at the University Chapel on November 14, 2009. The Diwali celebration is hosted by the University’s Office of Religious Life (ORL) and spearheaded by the University’s recently created Hindu Life Program. The program was launched last year as a pilot; this fall, Princeton made the program a permanent part of the ORL and hired Vineet Chander to be a full-time Coordinator for Hindu Life. The unique appointment makes Chander the first Hindu chaplain in the more than two hundred year history of the prestigious University. <\/p>\n

The worship service includes a mix of students, faculty, and staff; residents of Princeton; and members of the broader Hindu community in Central New Jersey. All are welcome to attend, and organizers hope that the worship service can also serve an educational purpose.<\/p>\n

Chandler said, “One of the aspects of the celebration that we’re most excited about is the opportunity that it provides for guests to experience something new and expand their horizons. Last year, I met guests who regularly attend Hindu services at the Chapel, but who had never witnessed Hindu worship. At the same time, I met members of the Indian community who had lived in Princeton for decades but had never set foot in the Chapel. To bring folks like this together under a common banner was extremely gratifying.”<\/p>\n

While the Chapel was founded as a Presbyterian house of worship, it has since grown to become “a truly ecumenical and inter-religious worship space” for students and the wider Princeton community, according to the Chapel’s website. For some Hindus, the significance of Diwali being observed at the Chapel – which is home to Opening Exercises and Baccalaureate, and has hosted guest preachers like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. – goes beyond the event itself.<\/p>\n

“It is a metaphor for the way that Hinduism has finally come to be welcomed into the American mainstream,” said Vineet. “To have the University honoring a Hindu holiday in its shared sacred space, bears testimony that the Hindu community has been warmly welcomed into America’s pluralistic landscape.” <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source: mailto:vchander@princeton.edu PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY, November 7, 2009: Princeton University will host its official celebration of the Hindu festival of,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8424","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8424"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8424\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}