Festival of Lights: Diwali

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India’s biggest festival!

Diwali is a happy family festival that is usually busy, loud and full of lights!

This amazing festival is as important to our friends Malar, Siva and Kashika back in Melbourne, as the Christmas festivity is to us! They have shared these beautiful moments with us.

Diwali comes from the Sanskrit word deepavali, which means ‘rows of lighted lamps’. The victory of light.

Diwali is a five-day festival that celebrates good over evil, and LIGHT over dark.

Candles, lamps, fireworks and firecrackers are an important part of the festival.

Diwali is the beginning of a new year in the Hindu calendar and is celebrated for five days.

  1. People clean their homes, buy gold or silver, new utensils and various objects for their kitchens and new clothes.
  2. The decorations include clay lamps called diyas and they create rangoli at the entrances of homes; these are believed to promote health and wellbeing and keep away darkness and negativity.

Rangoli: a traditional form of art in which pictures are drawn with materials such as coloured rice, flour or sand.

Diwali Menu

STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics). The designs are symmetrical and the colours are vibrant: the symmetry of the design allows students to link visual art and culture to mathematical concepts.

  • The festival begins on day three!  The most important day. Special prayers to the goddess Lakshmi who brings good luck and the  feast begins also with fireworks and firecrackers.
  • The first day of the Hindu new year, people visit family and friends and take gifts of clothes and sweets. My daughter Annie and her family enjoyed this festival so much.
  • The last day of Diwali, brothers visit their married sisters.

Annie is pointing her finger at the delicious food!

STEAM IN EDUCATION

This approach acknowledges the importance of the ‘inter-connected’ nature of science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics in education and how these skills can be useful in a world of technological advancement. It’s all about ‘thinking outside the box’ in order to provide creative solutions.

Grammar Bite: Indias’ biggest festival!

What is a superlative?

Something that is the best! We use superlatives all the time. We add the suffix = est to the adjective big. In this case we need an extra g.

What is a suffix? It is an ‘added’ ending of a word to make a new word.

This is the biggest festival I have ever been to!

Glad that we joined their most important day!

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