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Diwali, commonly known as the festival of lights, takes place on Sunday, November 12 this year.

Diwali is a Hindu festival celebrating the victory of Prince Rama over the evil demon Ravana.

On the same day, Sikhs celebrate a festival called Bandi Chor Divas, which marks the release of the sixth Sikh Guru, Guru Hargobind Singh Ji, who was falsely imprisoned along with 52 innocent prisoners by the Mughal Emperor Jahangir.

Diwali and Bandi Chor Divas are commonly celebrated by lighting Indian lamps which can either be called diyas or divas. Hindus visit the Mandir (Hindu temple), and Sikhs visit the Gurdwara (Sikh place of worship).

We鈥檝e chatted to parents about how they celebrate Diwali and Bandi Chor Divas with their little ones and have lots of simple, safe, and fun activities for you to get stuck into to mark the occasion.

Neev Spencer, a mother and her two daughters, Vivienne and Genevieve, doing Diwali arts and crafts
Image caption,
Tiny Happy People Ambassador, Neev Spencer, likes to get creative with her girls during the festivities.

How to make Diwali Rangoli

Punam Krishan, mother to eight-year-old son Aarish and one-year-old daughter Ellora, sees Diwali as an opportunity to bring everybody together and celebrate love and happiness.

For Punam, Diwali festivities last for a few weeks and begin with a deep clean of the house. 鈥淭his gets rid of all the negative energy, declutters and really allows us to welcome light into the home,鈥 explains Punam.

Decorating the house with marigold garlands, elephant Indian decorations and divas is important to Punam, who encourages her children to get involved in making decorations.

Their main activity is creating a rangoli, a colourful pattern on the floor, which Punam describes as 鈥渟uper sensory messy play, letting them explore and play with colours.鈥

How to make a rangoli:

  1. Mix rice and coloured dye together or use coloured powder
  2. Use a stencil or create your own stencil of a flower pattern
  3. Place the stencil on the floor outside on a driveway or patio
  4. Use the coloured powder or rice to fill in the shapes in the stencil
  5. Remove the stencil to reveal your pattern
A colourful rangoli pattern made from powder, flowers and candles
Image caption,
Rangoli patterns use lots of different colours
Diwali allows me to get really creative to do activities with the kids.

Punam鈥檚 top tip for parents is to make Diwali a key topic of conversation for a few weeks ahead of the day.

鈥淯se Diwali as an opportunity to explore and discover together,鈥 says Punam. 鈥淏e as open as possible to learning, whether it鈥檚 through experimenting with new activities or trying new foods.鈥

For Punam, a core part of celebrating Diwali as a parent is teaching her children鈥檚 friends. Each year Punam approaches her son鈥檚 school teacher ahead of Diwali and makes party bags for her son鈥檚 classmates. Her son鈥檚 school friends also come round for a Diwali play date.

鈥淭he responsibility for me is to pass on what I鈥檝e learnt to the next generation and for them to cherish it and hold onto it as much as I did as a kid.鈥

A mother with her son and daughter Ellora celebrating Diwali
Image caption,
Punam creates Diwali gift bags for her son's classmates, which include things like bubbles, battery-operated candles and a small tub of rangoli powder.

91热爆made Divas

Ami Kaur, mother of one-year-old Keerat, uses arts and crafts as the main way to celebrate Bandi Chor Divas with her son.

Ami loves doing sensory play activities with Keerat, and their favourite Bandi Chor Divas activity is creating their very own diva.

A diva is an Indian candle holder that is decorated with bright colours and patterns.

鈥淒oing an activity creates a memory for them of what we did at Diwali,鈥 says Ami, who hopes that the tradition will carry on every year.

To make your very own divas:

  1. Get some clay
  2. Add water to the clay to soften it
  3. Mould the clay into a diva shape (shape that will hold a tealight) using your fingers
  4. Use the end of a paintbrush or point of a pencil to create patterns on your diva
  5. Once you鈥檙e happy with the shape, let the clay set and harden
  6. Paint your diva with bright colours
Diwali Divas/Diyas
Image caption,
You can decorate your divas with paint

Ami鈥檚 top tip for parents celebrating Bandi Chor Divas and Diwali with their little ones is to teach them about the festivals. 鈥淭each them what the celebration is about, teach them in a way that they鈥檒l understand and enjoy,鈥 advises Ami.

鈥淎s parents, enjoy it yourselves as well because it鈥檚 easy to get lost thinking 鈥業 need to do this for my child鈥, but sometimes you forget about yourself. You鈥檝e got to remember that if you鈥檙e child鈥檚 watching you enjoy it then they鈥檙e going to enjoy it.鈥

A mother, father and baby at a Gurdwara
Image caption,
Ami says it's really important for parents to look after themselves as well as their little ones during this time.

Interactive Diwali story

A key part of Diwali celebrations for Nithusha, mother of three-year-old Kishiin, is making it as bright as possible and lighting diyas around the house.

In Hindu tradition, the lighting of diyas is an important part of prayers. It signifies purity, goodness and good luck.

鈥淲e light it in every corner of the house to weaken evil forces,鈥 explains Nithusha.

Nithusha prepares lots of arts and crafts activities for Kishin, such as making little lanterns and creating diyas. One of her favourite activities is telling the story of Diwali with a homemade puppet show.

Diwali interactive play
Image caption,
Telling the Diwali story through an interactive play makes it fun for your children

How to create an interactive story for Diwali

  1. Make characters of Rama, Sita, Hanuman, Lakshmana, Ravana using toilet rolls and paint them
  2. Add food colouring to rice and use it as a base for the scenes
  3. Use little peg dolls as villagers
  4. Use battery-operated tea lights or fairy lights for the divas
  5. Make fireworks using pompoms with tissue papers

Nithusha鈥檚 top tip for parents is to make it fun and full of learning. 鈥淓njoy the day and give them some insights into the importance,鈥 says Nithusha.

Mother and son making Diwali crafts
Image caption,
Nithusha and her son have created an interactive story theatre, where they can act out the story of Diwali together.

Colouring and painting

Neev Spencer, mother of two daughters, Genevieve, aged five, and Vivienne, aged two, gets creative with her girls using Diwali-themed activity packs.

Activities like colouring in pictures of fireworks, diyas and images associated with Diwali are a good way to familiarise your children with the festival. It also helps her start a conversation about what's happening, because they're interested in what they're colouring in.

How to make Diwali decoration:

  1. Draw a pattern or object associated with Diwali like a candle, flower or firework
  2. Cut out using safety scissors
  3. Colour using pencils, crayons or paint
  4. Display around the house
A mother making Diwali decorations with her two daughters
Image caption,
Arts and crafts is a great way to make Diwali fun for your children

Playing Indian music whilst getting creative is also important for Neev, who encourages her children to speak Hindi.

When dressing the girls up in Indian clothes, Neev refers to the accessories in Hindi rather than English, which helps her daughters with their second language.

Diwali is a moment for children to celebrate their Indian heritage.

鈥淢ake it fun, make it a really meaningful time,鈥 says Neev. 鈥淗ave an open communication with them about how exciting it is.鈥

She also tries to involve her daughters in all Diwali traditions: 鈥淛ust involve them, get them to take the mithai (Indian sweets) out of the box and put them on the tray and get them to help you arrange the diyas before you light them.鈥

Tiny Happy People Ambassador Neev Spencer visiting the Gurdwara with her 2 children.
Image caption,
If your child is having fun with you, they'll be more open new experiences and learning new things.

Read books together about Diwali

Pritpal, father of Paras, aged six, and Giaan, aged two, uses storybooks to teach his children about the Sikh faith and Bandi Chor Divas.

鈥淭eaching your children is a great way of teaching yourself, as kids allow us to reflect, look back and simplify things.鈥

Pritpal finds that stories spark an interest to learn more. 鈥淚 always find it鈥檚 better if they鈥檙e asking the questions because it means they鈥檙e ready to listen,鈥 he explains.

Want to find out more about supercharging your storytime? Check out this article.

Being a parent makes Bandi Chor Divas more enjoyable as you get to relive the magic through the children.

Pritpal鈥檚 top tip for parents is to make it fun but also be mindful of not overwhelming your child.

鈥淎t a young age, there鈥檚 only so much you can digest, so try to keep it simple with things like dates, who the Guru was and the moral of the story.

鈥淏e proactive, don鈥檛 assume that your child will know. Make it fun, keep them engaged, set some activities for them. Learning about the festival will follow,鈥 says Pritpal. 鈥淲hen they want to learn is when they鈥檙e going to learn.鈥

Six year old Paras colouring in and reading a book
Image caption,
Being a parent makes Bandi Chor Divas more enjoyable as you get to relive the magic through the children.

Tiny Happy People wishes you all a very happy Diwali and Bandi Chor Divas!

If you're looking for more activities that link to any other major parts of the year, visit our seasonal activities collection.

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