We hosted a virtual Diwali celebration!

On Friday 13th November the South East Capstone team held a virtual Diwali celebration!

Our Children’s Champions along with four of our young people attended to learn more about this important Hindu festival and why it is celebrated by many people around the world. We first discussed what the young people already knew about the festival and they said “it’s called the Festival of Lights” and there tends to be lots of fireworks, but they didn’t really know why it was called this or why there were fireworks to celebrate this day.

We then looked at some facts about Diwali and how it celebrates the Hindu New Year and lasts for 5 days. The festival also honours the Goddess Lakshmi who Hindu’s believe brings them good luck in the coming year. We then learned about Lakshmi’s four arms which represent the four goals in life as taught in the Hinduism faith. We discussed these four goals and how they were relevant to all of us.

After learning about some of the customs around Diwali, we looked at one of the most important Hindu stories of Diwali about Rama and Sita. We watched a video and read the story about how Sita was kidnapped by an evil demon called Ravana but was then saved by Sita after one of the greatest battles in history. The young people enjoyed the story and did well in answering questions about it in the quiz after.

The young people really enjoyed learning about Diwali, and even said they might try some of the craft ideas we gave them at home.

We would love to see how you celebrated Diwali, you can send us your updates here.