United Nation celebrates Diwali for the 1st time, HQ lit up to mark the celebrations

The United Nations is celebrating the Indian festival of lights - Diwali for the first time at its Headquarters in New York. After it was declared as a non-meeting day and was recognised by the 69th session of the UN General Assembly through a resolution adopted on 29th December 2014.

The UN headquarter in New York was lit up on Saturday evening and displayed a lamp with the message of "Happy Diwali" written in blue light to celebrate the spirit of the festival.

The lamp will continue to be lit for three evenings.
Syed Akbaruddin, India's Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the UN, shared a photograph of the decorated building on micro blogging site Twitter.

He tweeted, “Happy Diwali! UN celebrates Diwali for 1st time. Thank you UNPGA for this initiative”.

United Nation (UN) celebrates #Diwali for the 1st time, HQ lit up to mark the celebrations (picture source: Syed Akbaruddin's Twitter) pic.twitter.com/Xq5l5bJXcC

— ANI (@ANI_news) October 30, 2016