Deepavali or Diwali means rows of lights.
It is also known as the Festival of Lights. This festival is celebrated by Hindus worldwide.
It falls on the 14th day of the Tamil month of Aipasi that occurs around mid-October to mid-November. This year, Deepavali fell on the 24th of October.
Starfish children celebrated the occasion with me by involving in various activities. They helped to make kolam, which is a form of traditional decorative art that is drawn by using rice flour. To make it manageable, we used stencils that had traditional designs such as a peacock.
I brought the class a ‘Kuthu Vilakku’, an ornamental brass lamp about a metre in height. Some of the children tried lifting it to understand its weight, it was pretty heavy!
Many decorative earthen lights were also lit up. Due to safety reasons, we only used battery-operated tealight candles.
The class listened to an electronic story on how Dipal celebrated Deepavali. Following that we had a tasting of some traditional Indian food. I had to ensure every child’s diet requirement was met. Surprisingly the children’s favourite was the spicy ‘Murukku’!
Following that, everyone was involved in making the ‘Murukku’. The children went around the school to share the food that they had made.
The children and I had a wonderful time together learning about and celebrating Deepavali.
