Now that August is here, the countdown is on for the Whitney Pier Group's annual Melting Pot Festival that celebrates our ethnicity from around the world.

Besides a week long cultural food sampling, and a new speaker series featuring the stories of our people, we are planning a special night of fireworks to salute the newest and largest group of immigrants who arrived en mass to the area from India this past year to attend university.

We plan to light up the skies over Neville Park on Aug. 23 to honor the approximate 1,800 new immigrants living in Whitney Pier, Sydney, Glace Bay and surrounding areas and help them celebrate the national holiday they are missing back home - the Janmashtami Festival - a very important Hindu festival that begins Aug. 24 and is celebrated for Lord Krishna, the eighth reincarnation of Lord Vishnu. It's a festival that involves everything from fasting, to games, prayers, costumes, music and pranks.