Livermore Tri-Valley Marks Diwali with Dublin's First Mela and a Temple's Celebrated Free Kitchen
The Tri-Valley is celebrating Diwali this season on two meaningful fronts: Dublin is holding its first-ever city-partnered Diwali Mela at Emerald Glen Park, bringing together Hindu organizations from across the region for an all-day festival of music, food, and cultural performance. Meanwhile, Livermore's storied Shiva-Vishnu Temple — one of the oldest and most celebrated Hindu temples in the United States — continues drawing thousands of devotees each week and offering them something unusual: a full, multi-dish meal entirely free of charge. Together, these stories reflect a South Asian Hindu community in the East Bay that is simultaneously planting civic roots and honoring decades-old spiritual traditions.
🎉 Dublin Hosts First Diwali Mela with City Partnership and South Asian Coalition
Dublin is holding its first-ever Diwali Mela at Emerald Glen Park, with the all-day celebration running from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. The event was organized by the Trivalley Hindu Connect alongside a broad coalition of South Asian community organizations: HSS, HAF, UPMA (Uttar Pradesh Mandal of America), BICS, Sewa International, and SVAA, with the City of Dublin serving as an official partner. Attendees can look forward to cultural performances, traditional music, colorful decorations, and an array of food throughout the day. The city's formal co-sponsorship of the Mela marks a civic milestone — it reflects the growing size and influence of the Tri-Valley's Hindu community in local public life. The inaugural festival follows just days after tens of thousands of people packed the Alameda County Fairgrounds for a separate Diwali celebration, demonstrating that demand for large-scale community-organized Diwali events in the East Bay is well established and growing. Diwali, the Hindu Festival of Lights, celebrates the victory of light over darkness, good over evil, and knowledge over ignorance — a message the organizers hope will resonate beyond the Hindu community to all of Dublin's diverse neighborhoods. With multiple South Asian organizations and a city government united behind this inaugural edition, the Dublin Diwali Mela establishes a foundation for what its organizers envision as a growing annual tradition. [2]
🪔 Shiva-Vishnu Temple's Free Food Program Remains the Heart of Bay Area Hindu Life
The Shiva-Vishnu Temple in Livermore — officially the Hindu Community and Cultural Center (HCCC) — is recognized as one of the oldest and most significant Hindu temples in the United States, serving the Bay Area's South Asian diaspora for decades. On a typical Saturday morning, thousands of devotees travel from across the region to pray at shrines dedicated to Shiva, Ganesh, Vishnu, and other Hindu deities. The temple was already considered grand and auspicious as far back as 1992, when it was drawing Hindu families arriving in the Bay Area from New York and across the country. What distinguishes the HCCC from nearly all of America's roughly 1,000 Hindu temples is the scope of its food program. After prayers, visitors move to a covered courtyard where two long tables are spread with freshly prepared dishes: tamarind rice, a lentil-based gravy called sambar, doughnut-shaped fried vadai, and yogurt rice tempered with spices, all following recipes passed down through generations. While most temples offer only a single prasadam sweet, and some — like the Queens Hindu temple whose kitchen earned a New York Times ranking among the city's 100 best restaurants — run paying canteens, and the Pittsburgh temple also charges for its food, the HCCC offers a full multi-dish spread free of charge to every visitor. This food program is described as central to the temple's identity, a defining characteristic that sets the HCCC apart from comparable institutions across America. [3]
Sources: [2] Patch · [3] hinduismtoday.com