Holi, one of India’s most colourful and joyous festivals is coming soon! Holi will begin on the evening of March 1st when people gather around a fire and the spend the night sing, dancing & frolicking. The fire symbolises the death of the evil demon Holika who tries to kill Prahlad, a devotee of Vishnu. This is called Choti Holi or Holika Dahan. They also chant prayers and perform other rituals around the fire, to ward off evil, if any, inside them.
Apart from summer workshops and courses which indulge your kids in various arts, crafts & miscellaneous activities, there are a lot of things you could get them to do at home and around.
Make this holiday special! It could evolve the relationship you share with your child.
One of India’s favourite festivals is around the corner. Diwali, the festival of lights, is here and while you are busy shopping for new clothes and sweets to distribute to friends & family, here are some ideas for decorating your house along with your little ones
Navratri is a 9-day Hindu festival celebrated across the length and breadth of India in the months of September & October. This year, the festival falls between 21st September and 29 September. Navratri is the celebration of good over evil and is celebrated differently in different parts of the country.
Eastern & Northeastern India: Here, Navratri is celebrated in the form of Durga Puja. Goddess Durga who fights the buffalo demon, Mahishasura, and restores Dharma or right way of living or simply, the good in the universe, is venerated and prayed to for 10 days. Predominantly celebrated in West Bengal, Durga Puja includes putting up stage decorations/pandals which house beautiful clay idols of Goddess Durga. People gather at these pandals and worship the goddess, perform rites and recite chants & sing bhajans. One of the eye-catching traditions is what they call Dhunaachi Naach. Aarti or puja is performed using an incense burner called dhoop and sometimes men and women hold one or more than one dhoop and dance with them to the beats of a dhak (a kind of drum played in these parts of the country)
Tradesmen are busy people
You have been trying to get your dripping tap for weeks and your plumber has been playing truant, promising you all the time he is almost at your doorstep but some ‘urgent’ work has come up in the meantime. When the sound of the dripping tap and the thought of wasting all that precious water has fairly driven you up the wall, you decide enough is enough.
Do It Yourself
You turn to, you guessed it, Google, the go-to person for everything from how to fix a dripping tap in 5 easy steps to making a paper lantern for your child for Diwali. A helpful step-by-step procedure and an infographic listing the essential items to learn your new trade of plumbing and you are good to go. After a few trials and lots of errors, you finally manage to fix the leaky pipe. The satisfaction derived from taking on a challenge and doing it well, you realize, is immense.
Festival of Lights
Diwali is the most popular of all the festivals in India and signifies the victory of good over evil. It is a time to meet family and friends, exchange gifts and burst firecrackers. During Diwali, every house is lit up with traditional diyas, decorative lights and paper lanterns to signify the move away from darkness and towards light. So what does the concept of DIY have to do with the festival of lights?