Our Diwali celebration

Divali is a Hindi festival of lights. The word Diwali means “cluster of lights”. It celebrates the new year, and is considered India’s most important holiday. This year it begins October 28th, and lasts 5 days. Some celebrate it as the return of Rama & Sita. Many people light thousands of little lamps called divas to help Rama & Sita find their way back from the forest. Some think the more Lamps they light, the more likely Lakshmi will visit them, and bring wealth, and good fortune for the coming year with her.They also paint rangoli patterns around their houses & temples hoping to temp Lakshmi to visit.  Before Diwali people clean their homes, take care of old debt, and resolve to let go of grudges,and bad feelings.Today we celebrated Diwali.  There were so many fun things to celebrate this past weekend, that we got a late start on Diwali. Better late than never. I didn’t want to miss out on all the wonderful handwork, crafts, & mythology related to the Holiday. 

Here are the things we did…..

• made diva lamps
• made rangoli patterns
• made colored sand
• heard the story of Rama & Sita
• made coconut curry & chapati

I encourage you to take part in some traditional Diwali activities. We had a lot of fun, and learned about another culture.

The story of Rama & Sita: a tale for Diwali

Rama and Sita
This is a story about Prince Rama, the great warrior, who was married to the beautiful Sita. Rama and Sita were really gods in human form.

Prince Rama meant to take over the throne from his father the king, but his wicked stepmother had tricked his father into sending him away into the forest. With him went his wife, Sita. Rama had begged Sita to stay safely in the palace while he stayed in the forest, but she declared it was a thousand times better to be in the forest with Rama than in the richest palace without him.

So Rama and Sita went to live in the forest together. They lived a simple, peaceful life in a small cottage.

But, before long, their peace was disturbed. One day, Sita was spotted by the demon king, Ravana. Of all the demons who lived in the forest, Ravana was the most terrible. He had twenty arms and ten heads, with eyes as red as coal fires and a mouthful of yellow fangs. When Ravana saw the beautiful Sita, he immediately came up with a plan to kidnap her and make her his wife.

One day, when Rama and Sita were walking in the forest, they saw the most beautiful deer you can imagine. Its golden hide was as bright as the sun, its silver antlers as bright as the moon, its hooves shone as black as night, and its eyes were as blue as sapphires.

So delighted was Sita when she saw the deer that she begged Rama to catch it for her. Rama was worried that this was some demon trick to try and split them up, but Sita pleaded with Rama, until he agreed to try and catch the deer for her.

As soon as Sita was alone, the demon Ravana swooped down and swept Sita up into his chariot pulled by winged monsters. Despite her terror Sita thought quickly and scattered her jewellery piece by piece – first her golden anklets, then her earrings, then her glittering scarf – as a trail for Rama to follow. Far below a white monkey looked up and, seeing the glittering jewellery, thought the stars were falling.

In the midst of the forest, Rama tracked down the beautiful deer. But when he caught hold of it, the deer changed into a terrible demon that broke away from Rama’s grasp and flew into the sky. Realising that he had been tricked, Prince Rama ran back to the cottage as fast as he could, his heart filled with dread. Finding Sita gone, he searched frantically until he came upon the trail of jewellery that Sita had left.

Rama followed this golden trail until he met Hanuman, the white monkey, who had seen Sita’s jewellery fall from the sky. Hanuman was a very special monkey because he was the monkey king. Hanuman took Rama to the monkey city, that lay under the hills in a giant cave. All the monkeys of the city were called to the marble square in the centre of the city, and messages were sent out to monkeys all over the world. They came in their millions from the woods and caves, and with them came their friends the bears. Twenty-three million animals filled the city and covered the hills like a great shaggy sea. After they had heard what had happened, they spread out to search the world for Sita.

It was the monkey, Hanuman, who came to the island where Sita was being held prisoner. The monkeys and bears with him stared in despair at the giant crashing waves that surrounded the island, but Hanuman, the son of the wind god, climbed to the highest hill, took a mighty breath and leapt into the clouds, and over the crashing waves. He landed on the island and quickly found Sita in a grove of trees near the palace. There she sat refusing to marry the evil Ravana.

Sita was overjoyed when she found out who Hanuman was and she gave him a pearl from her hair to take to Rama. Then, Hanuman bounded away to fetch Rama and Lakshmana, and the great army of monkeys and bears.

But still the giant ocean waves kept Rama and his army away from the island. And so the army began to build a bridge of rocks and grass and sand.

The squirrels came running out of the woods to help, every animal – large and small – contributed to the building, and soon the bridge stretched a hundred miles to the island, and the animals poured across their bridge.

Long and terrible was the battle, as the animals fought the evil demons. Many great deeds were done, until at last Rama faced the demon Ravana on the battlefield. With his arrows Rama struck again and again at the heads of Ravana but, each time he chopped one off, a new one grew.

Then Rama took up his special bow and arrow that had been made by the sky god. He chanted a special prayer and shot. The gods of wind and fire guided the arrow and it pierced Ravana’s chest in a blinding flash. Ravana fell dead in an instant.

The entire world rejoiced. The reign of the demons was over and Rama and Sita returned to their own country to rule. In celebration, the gods showered flowers from the sky, and the people lined the streets with flags and garlands. In every home, an oil lamp was put in the window to welcome back the Rama and Sita and their great army. The royal ruled happily for many years until it was time for them to leave their life on earth and return to heaven.

For Hindus, this story shows how good will always triumph over evil in the same way as a little oil lamp will destroy total darkness

Making diva lamps for Diwali or anytime

We made a cute little batch of diva lamps in celebration of Diwali.

We made them similar to these, but we made ours out of salt dough so that we could paint, decorate & use then the same day. We also placed a tea light in the hole, shaped the handle & tip, then removed the candle from the little metal holder before baking. Leave the metal cup in the hole as it bakes so that it will keep it’s shape.

Our salt dough recipe is:

• 2 cups white flour
• 1/2 cup salt
• 3/4 cup water

This made 5 diva lamps, but you could easily double or triple the recipe.

Knead the dough until it is nice & smooth. Then shape as you like. We baked our diva lamps for 1 hour at 350 degrees. After they cooled we decorated them with sequins & glitter glue.

Making colored sand for crafts

Making colored sand couldn’t be simpler. Why pay so much at the craft store for something you can make so cheaply at home? We made this batch to make rangoli patterns with for Diwali. To make it all you need is sand, food coloring, and water. Start with a 1/2 cup, or more if you like. Add 2 tablespoons of water, and 10 to 12 drops of coloring. Mix it up until the color is even. Allow it to dry, or spread it out on a plate & microwave 2 or 3 minutes, and it will be ready to use. Remember when mixing your colors that the final product will dry a few shades lighter. Here’s a picture of what we made.

Rangoli for Diwali

We made these rangoli patterns from glue & colored sand we made ourselves for Diwali. It is believed the beauty of the rangoli will attract Lakshmi, who will bring good fortune in the new year. In India families hand down many rangoli patterns from one generation to another. We printed patterns here, and then traced the lines with glue. We then sprinkled on the sand. We found the more simple the pattern, the better the result. Only apply glue for one color at a time, then spinkle one color of sand & then start another. We mounted our rangoli on black paper, and hung them on our art wall.

Maybe Lakshmi will like our rangoli & throw some good fortune our way.