Diwali at Buckle My Shoe

We always enjoy learning about different cultures and special celebrations and so recently, we were super excited to find out that it was nearly Diwali – the Indian New Year! Some of our little ones have a cultural background stemmed from India so we decided to tap into family knowledge and find out more about this special time of the year. 😊

From conversations with some of our parents and through our own research, we began to grow our understanding of what Diwali is and some special customs that occur during this time.

We found out that Diwali can also be referred to as “The Festival of Lights” and that a big of part of it, is lighting up your homes. We love creating things and decided to set ourselves the challenge of making our own special candle holders or “diyas”. Using clay, our little ones spent time molding, pressing and pinching this manipulative material until it was fit for purpose!

Excited about the prospect of creating their own diya to take home, our little ones had to wait patiently for the diya to dry overnight before being able to paint it in beautiful colours.

Diwali is all about colour, so after draping beautiful saris (traditional Indian garment) around our environment and making colourful lanterns, we spent some time creating our very own Rangoli patterns. Our little ones were invited to grate chalk against a strainer, in order to make coloured powder for their patterns. This involved hand-eye coordination and by the end of it, we had beautiful rangoli patterns for our centre.

Dressing up in special clothes is a big part of Diwali, so one of our lovely teachers brought in some traditional Indian clothing and items from home to share with our tamariki. Our little ones were amazed at how long a sari is and measured it across the room to gain a deeper understanding of its length.

One of our wonderful parents brought in a special Indian sweet for our little ones to try. It was called a Gulab Jamun and is best described as an Indian donut. Our tamariki love taste testing and enjoyed trying these for afternoon tea. 😋

To end our Diwali celebrations, we had a cultural dress-up day. It was lovely to see many of our tamariki dressed up in their cultural clothes and so proud of where they come from. Our diyas were all ready and decorated by this point and so we incorporated them into our special Diwali mat time by lighting them and singing a special Diwali song.

Another one of our wonderful parents came in and spent some time doing Henna for us! Henna is done on hands and feet during auspicious celebrations such as Diwali and weddings. Having to keep their hands very still, our little ones were able to experience having Henna done on their hands and were very careful not to smudge it whilst it dried.

Diwali is a time to celebrate, spend time with loved ones and share good food together. To those families who celebrate Diwali, again, here’s wishing you a Diwali that brings happiness prosperity and joy to you and all your family. 😊