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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’ve 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.

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. “This gets rid of all the negative energy, declutters and really allows us to welcome light into the home,” 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 “super sensory messy play, letting them explore and play with colours.”

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

Diwali allows me to get really creative to do activities with the kids.

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

“Use Diwali as an opportunity to explore and discover together,” says Punam. “Be as open as possible to learning, whether it’s through experimenting with new activities or trying new foods.”

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

“The responsibility for me is to pass on what I’ve learnt to the next generation and for them to cherish it and hold onto it as much as I did as a kid.”

���˿���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.

“Doing an activity creates a memory for them of what we did at Diwali,” 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’re happy with the shape, let the clay set and harden
6. Paint your diva with bright colours

Ami’s top tip for parents celebrating Bandi Chor Divas and Diwali with their little ones is to teach them about the festivals. “Teach them what the celebration is about, teach them in a way that they’ll understand and enjoy,” advises Ami.

“As parents, enjoy it yourselves as well because it’s easy to get lost thinking ‘I need to do this for my child’, but sometimes you forget about yourself. You’ve got to remember that if you’re child’s watching you enjoy it then they’re going to enjoy it.”

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.

“We light it in every corner of the house to weaken evil forces,” 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.

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’s top tip for parents is to make it fun and full of learning. “Enjoy the day and give them some insights into the importance,” says Nithusha.

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

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.

“Make it fun, make it a really meaningful time,” says Neev. “Have an open communication with them about how exciting it is.”

She also tries to involve her daughters in all Diwali traditions: “Just 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.”

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.

“Teaching your children is a great way of teaching yourself, as kids allow us to reflect, look back and simplify things.”

Pritpal finds that stories spark an interest to learn more. “I always find it’s better if they’re asking the questions because it means they’re ready to listen,” 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’s top tip for parents is to make it fun but also be mindful of not overwhelming your child.

“At a young age, there’s 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.

“Be proactive, don’t assume that your child will know. Make it fun, keep them engaged, set some activities for them. Learning about the festival will follow,” says Pritpal. “When they want to learn is when they’re going to learn.”

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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