We did our bit to celebrate Diwali. We woke up early morning, had oil baths, gave the kids oil bath and did a small prayer. We went to the temple in the evening, there's as ISKON temple right next to the house (only one of two temples here!) and it was so peaceful being inside on Diwali night. People were chanting hymns, and lighting small lamps for God.
At home we had a pot luck dinner for other friends who were missing home like us. The food was great, as everyone had brought their specialty and I like a cheapie used only paper plates and cutlery so we didn't have to spend much time clearing up. Only it finished at midnight and the kids refused to sleep while guests were around (there were two other kids as well) so S was quite exhausted for school the next day. Poor A was also exhausted as I have to wake her up and take her along to drop S at her school so she ends up getting up and having her breakfast early even on non daycare days!
Myself and another mom in S class wentto their school and spoke to the children about Diwali. We split the class in half, and showed one half a small video about the origin of Diwali -attaching the YouTube link..
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There is one gory scene in this in which Lord Rama beheads Ravana, so we had to pause before that part and forward over it so as to not expose young children to such violence (I grew up watching large effigicies of Ravana and his brother being burnt, but that was another time and age..). We had divided each class in two so that they could see the video more easily, and we decided to talk about Diwali in both the classes of that year , and each set watched the video twice, so in all there were 8 pausing and fast forwardings and ensuring that there was no accidental showing of violence! We showed it on mute and spoke over the animation.
While one half of the class was watching the video, the other half was doing the Diwali activity with the other mom. This was basically sticking paper picture of diyas on cards, colouring them in, sticking stars and other glittery stuff on it and basically making a Happy Diwali card they could take home. Each kid also got a Diwali sweet and a Diya (except poor S, we didn't have enough diyas !!). It was nice speaking about Diwali to the kids, and after school, S kept saying Happy Diwali.
I've got my mom to buy diyas and crackers for us to celebrate Diwali when we come there in December. Till then...wish you all a very Happy Diwali..
2 comments:
Wow. That was really a lot of effort and it was a great idea doing it. Atleast S wont feel like the odd one out, celebrating a festival that no one else has even heard of.
That was the idea. But some of the moms had heard about Diwali and one even gave us flowers to celebrate!
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