The Difference Diwali Makes: Understanding the Contribution of a Cultural Event to Subjective Well-being for Ethnic Minority Communities

Abstract

This research provides a nuanced understanding of the contribution of cultural events to subjective well-being for ethnic minority migrant communities, who often face significant challenges in their new lives. The article investigates how the intersection of sense of community and subjective wellbeing function in this context. It focuses on the Hindu celebration of Diwali/Deepavali (the Festival of Lights) in two New Zealand cities. Data from interviews with event attendees and organizers were thematically analyzed using the McMillan and Chavis "sense of community" framework, overlaid with a conceptualization of subjective well-being developed by Davidson and Cotter. The analysis reveals strong evidence of the creation and maintenance of sense of community at multiple levels, from the diasporic Indian subcommunities through to the wider non-Indian macrocommunity. The most significant components are membership, fulfillment of needs, and shared emotional connection: they are also the most significant point of intersection with factors contributing to subjective well-being. These cultural events provide event attendees with opportunities to experience and express positive affects such as happiness, joy, pride, pleasure. They also demonstrate influence in that they respect, promote, and support the ethnic minority migrant subcommunity and act as a bridge to form a sense of community with the macrocommunity through membership and shared emotional connection. To maximize these wider benefits, we recommend practitioners hold such events regularly, advertise widely, select venues that are readily accessible and nonthreatening, and provide informative explanatory content.