November 2021 Parenta Magazine

Celebrating Diwali, Festival
of Lights in your setting
The Hindu Festival of Lights, known as Diwali or “Deepavali”, meaning ‘rows of lighted lamps’, is a
bright, colourful festival celebrating the triumph of the light over the darkness, and knowledge over
ignorance. Hindu is the third most practiced religion in the world behind Christianity and Islam, and
is considered to be the world’s oldest religion, dating back more than 4,000 years. It is celebrated
by Hindus, Jains, Sikhs and some Muslims and Buddhists around the world, and this year, lands on
2nd - 6th November.
Hinduism is an eclectic religion which
does not claim to have any one Prophet
or worship any one God, nor does it have
a single central belief, making it difficult to
describe to lay people. It is perhaps best
described as a ‘way of life’ which can
include many different spiritual and secular
practices including meditation, yoga,
worship, duties, respect for nature, the
seeking and giving of wealth/security and
pleasure, and honour of the family.
How is Diwali celebrated?
Diwali is a 5-day festival in which Hindus
traditionally do certain things on certain
days. Like Easter, its exact days are based
on a lunar calendar, so the dates change
each year.
Day one – people often clean their homes
and clear out old things in preparation for
the main festival.
Day two – houses are decorated with
small, clay oil lamps known as diyas. It is
traditional to draw or use coloured sand
or rice to decorate the floor outside the
front door with a bright, colourful pattern
(rangolis).
Day three – this is the main Diwali festival
and people go to the temples to worship
and honour the Goddess Lakshmi. They
can share food in the temple, decorate
them with rows of diyas and end the day
with feasts and fireworks.
Day four – this is the new year for many
Hindus, and it is celebrated by exchanging
presents with family and friends.
Day five – this day is traditionally a day to
celebrate the sibling relationship and so
people see family, and share traditional
foods such as laddoos and gulab jamun,
celebrating with music and dance.
Celebrating Diwali using the
Early Learning Goals
Diwali is a festival which you can celebrate
in many ways in your setting. We thought
it would be fun to come up with different
ideas based on the Early Learning Goals.
Communication and language
Hindi is one of India’s official languages
along with Urdu, and over 60% of Indians
speak Hindi. It stems from Sanskrit but has
also been greatly influenced by Persian
and Arabic. You could teach the children
a few Hindu words related to Diwali and
here are a few easy ones to get you
started:
• Namaste – Hello – I bow to you
• Haan – Yes
• Nahin - Noहीं
• Alavida – Goodbye
• Yoga - The path of achieving union
with the Divineयोग
• Diya - The traditional oil lamp used in
Diwali
• Sanskrit – The ancient language used
in Hindu religious texts
Physical development
Teach your children some classical Indian
dance, one form of which is known as
Bharatnatyam. It was originally a temple
dance for women and is often used to
tell religious stories. The movements are
characterised by bent legs and turnedout
feet with symbolic hand and arm
gestures called mudras. You can find some
basic steps at https://www.bbc.co.uk/
newsround/54833725 or you could try
some easy Bollywood dancing.
Personal, social and emotional
development
One of the teachings in Hinduism is about
the connectedness of all things and the
idea that we should live a kind life, which
is in balance with nature to create good
karma. You could explore what kindness/
karma mean in your circle time to see what
your children think being kind to others
means. You could have a ‘kindness day’
where the aim is to be kind to everyone you
see, by a kind word or a kind deed such as
sharing toys, or swapping small gifts.
Literacy
There are books that you can use in
storytime about Diwali that explain what
the festival is about and how people
celebrate it. Twinkl has recently released
“Dipal’s Diwali” which explains how the
protagonist, Dipal, celebrates Diwali with
his family, but there are others such as
“Let’s Celebrate 5 Days of Diwali!” by Ajanta
Chakraborty and “The Diwali Gift” by
Shweta Chopra.
Mathematics
Since there are 5 days in Diwali, you
can base your number work around the
number 5. This is a good number for early
years children because it is the number
of digits on each hand. Make some hand
prints using paint and then label the
numbers 1 to 5 and get the children to
practice writing their numbers. You can
also cut out paper images of diyas and
arrange them in different patterns, or cut
out different sized circles and petal shapes
and get the children to make their own
rangoli patters with the different shapes.
Explore symmetry too by making folding
paintings. Draw a line down the centre of a
piece of paper and get the children to paint
on only one half of the paper. Then fold it
in half so that the image is transferred onto
the opposite half. When you open it up,
you should have a matching, symmetrical
image on both halves of the paper.
Understanding the world
Teach the children some facts about
India – you could show where it is on the
globe, look at some examples of traditional
Indian dress and talk about some of the
differences that exist between the two
countries. Why not consider things like?
• Climate and weather
• Population
• Diet
• National dress
• Music and dance
• Animals
Expressive arts and design
There are many arts and crafts ideas
that you can use to celebrate Diwali such
as making paper lanterns, pictures of
fireworks or rangoli patterns. You could
decorate the floor outside your setting
with chalk rangolis. Remember to make
them bold and colourful to welcome in the
Goddess Lakshmi into your setting. Another
idea is to make some Indian sweet treats
and there are some simple, no-cooking
recipes which are suitable for toddlers.
Diwali is all about light defeating darkness,
so you could encourage your children to
interpret this themselves and give them free
reign over what to draw to show this.
Remember to send us in your images and
stories to hello@parenta.com to let us know
what you get up to. Happy Diwali!
34 November 2021 | parenta.com
parenta.com | November 2021 35