![\"DiwaliUNO\"](\"https:\/\/greattelangaana.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/DiwaliUNO.jpg\")
<\/p>\nDiwali was commemorated for the first time at the United Nations, with the world body\u2019s imposing headquarters in New York lit up especially on the occasion of the Indian festival of lights.<\/p>\n
The facade of the U.N. headquarters was lit in bright hues and the words \u2018Happy Diwali\u2019, along with the image of a traditional diya, projected onto the building.<\/p>\n
\u201cLighting up. @UN lights up for #Diwali for 1st time,\u201d India\u2019s Ambassador to the U.N. Syed Akbaruddin tweeted.<\/p>\n
\u201cHappy Diwali! @UN celebrates Diwali for 1st time. Thank you @UN_PGA for this initiative,\u201d Mr. Akbaruddin said in another tweet, thanking General Assembly president Peter Thomson for the initiative.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
He also tweeted a picture of passersby clicking photographs of the building as well as being themselves clicked against the illuminated U.N. headquarters in the background.<\/p>\n
Mr. Thomson also tweeted a picture of the U.N. building lit up in bright blue for Diwali and said \u201cLight over darkness, hope over despair, knowledge over ignorance, good over evil \u2014 the UN lights up. Happy Diwali!\u201d<\/p>\n
The U.N. Secretariat building will be lit up for Diwali for three days from October 29, 2016.<\/p>\n
It is for the first time that the Indian festival of lights is celebrated at the world body after the U.N. General Assembly adopted a resolution in December, 2014 that acknowledged the \u201csignificance of Diwali\u201d.<\/p>\n
Noting that the festival is observed in many U.N. member states, the resolution had called on U.N. bodies to avoid holding meetings on Diwali, declaring it a no-meeting day.<\/p>\n
From 2016 onwards, Diwali was made an optional holiday for the U.N., India\u2019s Permanent Mission to the world body said in a special video message.<\/p>\n
Earlier in June, the U.N. building was lit up on the occasion of the International Yoga Day, with images of Yoga postures projected on the imposing headquarters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Diwali was commemorated for the first time at the United Nations, with the world body\u2019s imposing headquarters in New York lit up especially on the occasion of the Indian festival of lights. The facade of the U.N. headquarters was lit in bright hues and the words \u2018Happy Diwali\u2019, along with the image of a traditional […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":29053,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,3,2],"tags":[258,7910,12012,12016,12013,12015,12014],"class_list":["post-29052","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nri","category-politicalnews","category-top-stories","tag-america","tag-diwali","tag-newyork","tag-u-n-headquarters","tag-un","tag-un-celebrates-diwali","tag-united-nations"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/greattelangaana.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/diwali-5.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/greattelangaana.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29052","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/greattelangaana.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/greattelangaana.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greattelangaana.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greattelangaana.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29052"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/greattelangaana.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29052\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greattelangaana.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29053"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/greattelangaana.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greattelangaana.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greattelangaana.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}