AKRON, Ohio — Getting married on Halloween has become a sort of a tradition in Akron. The Akron Municipal Court hosts public weddings annually on the spookiest day of the year at the Civic Theatre, allowing couples to dress up in costume and exchange their vows in the venue’s beautiful lobby.
Sagarika Naik and Devavrat Sathe were among the more than a dozen couples who showed up to say their “I do’s.” The couple, both originally from India but who met in Akron, were dressed in traditional wedding garments and chose to get married on Thursday not because it was Halloween, but because it was also the start of Diwali.
“Diwali is our biggest festival,” Naik told WKYC, a partner of cleveland.com. “It is the festival of lights. It signifies positivity and just warmth overall.”
Celebrated by millions of people in India and the diaspora worldwide, Diwali is a five-day Hindu festival marked by festive gatherings, fireworks, feasts and prayers. The name derives from the Sanskrit word Deepavali, which translates to “row of lights.” These oil lamps symbolize the triumph of light over darkness, knowledge over ignorance and good over evil.
“I love how we could bring a little bit of Diwali here with our flowers, our outfits and all our friends,” the bride added. “Because it’s all about the people in the end, and all of our people are here.”
“We get to start the next stage of our lives in a city where we found a lot of community and found like a second home,” Sathe, her new husband, said. “That’s probably the most heartening part of it.”
The couple told WKYC they have a few more wedding celebrations in the coming days before settling into married life in Akron.