Fun diwali activities ?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To the PP with the list of 10 things, in this day and age why would you want to advertise your religion on your front door? No way would I hang or put any religious symbols on my front door or porch.

A few years ago, there was this gang from New York that Targeted Indian homes and stole things - the give away was the religious decorations outside the home.

You do realize that this was a thread for fun Diwali activities for kids?

Don't worry, we no longer keep 24 K gold jewelry in our house in atta dabbas. Everything is pure fake in the best tradition of Art Karat. I am actually quite comfortable advertising my religion because I live in Montgomery County, Maryland, and in one of the most diverse places in US. Which means that that this October started with Navarathri, visiting Golus, Durga Pooja and will continue with Karva Chauth, Dhanteras, Diwali and Bhai Dooj. You know what? We celebrate it all, with other Indians and our neighbors from all over US and the world, because it is all about the FOOD. Of course then there will be Halloween and next month we will be celebrating Thanksgiving with Tandoori Turkey. But frankly, my hippie-dippie American neighbors, who are originally from Penselvania and Texas...love Holi because of all the colors and because we hand out bhang-infused edibles to them, in the name of prashaad.

- pp with the 10 things wallah list!!
Chill!!

NP who is not Indian - my family moved to Montgomery County for reasons like this! Happy Diwali! And tell me more about Tandoori turkey...

[Anonymous]

Cedar Lane Unitarian Universalist Church in Bethesda has a Diwali event open to the community on October 26, 5-7 p.m.:

"Join Cedar Laners and members of the Indo-American community across the DMV region for a special Spirit Experience to celebrate Diwali, the Hindu Festival of Lights. The service will feature Indian dance, music, a children’s play on Diwali, reflections, and the lighting of lamps. The service will blend together a faith and cultural tapestry which celebrates the beauty, diversity, and oneness of the human journey. The evening will conclude with delicious vegetarian Indian food and the lighting of sparklers."

https://www.cedarlane.org/event/spirit-experience-diwali

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We do a massive deep-cleaning before the festival (undergoing right now) of the house and yard.
- Kids help to make the diwali packages (box of sweets, diyas, sparklers in gift bags) and we go to our friends himes to drop it off
- Decorate outside with string of lights
- Make rangoli with the help of the kids
- Decorate the pooja thali and the prayer room
- Light candles and lights all over the house
- Sit and do a nice pooja
- Light Sparklers outside.

For kids -
1)With a few friends. tell them the story of Ramayan or have a puppet show.
2) Paint and decorate diyas, pooja thalis or even decoupage some tree ornaments with Diwali or Hindi religious pictures (No swastk please, the Nazis messed that for us in countries outside of India), and hang it on a tree in the yard.
3) Make Rangolis with colored chalk.
4) Carve a pumpkin with an Om Symbol and light a candle inside it
5) Make a fall wreathe and hang it outside with some Hindu symbols - om, kalasg etc
6) Make door hangings with Diwali themed items/
7) Have a bonfire,
8) Light sparklers
9) Wear Indian clothes. Takes loads of pictures. Put it on social media.
10) Make easy Indian sweets - microwave barfis and also make smores on the bonfire.

NP — I’m not Hindu but this sounds awesome! It would make me happy to see people celebrating this colorful holiday.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not OP but I have toddlers and love these suggestions! I really want to prioritize Indian celebrations as they grow up - take a day or two off work so we can prepare for Puja in a relaxed manner. And spend a couple weekends before doing holiday-related arts and crafts to make those special memories.

My kids grew up here, so we celebrate both the Indian and American festivals. My kids love 4th of July, Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. We celebrate it in a not-religious manner and concentrate of the food, decoration, entertaining, gift giving etc. We have a large group of Indian friends from different regions, so we all celebrate one or two of our favorite festivals in a big way and our friends join us for potluck.

Some of the things that we have adopted and given it a Indian twist is for the kids - Diwali gift exchange, and making and hanging diwali ornaments.
We have also created some diwali traditions like throwing native wild flower seeds in a meadow near our house and also hanging some bird feeders for the fall and winter.

[Anonymous]

You can incorporate some acts of service - like working in a food kitchen, or donating food etc., as a way to teach your children to give to the needy.

[Anonymous]

NP.

We do many of the things on the pp’s awesome list and also fill up two shopping carts of food at Costco to donate at our nearby food bank.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not OP but I have toddlers and love these suggestions! I really want to prioritize Indian celebrations as they grow up - take a day or two off work so we can prepare for Puja in a relaxed manner. And spend a couple weekends before doing holiday-related arts and crafts to make those special memories.

My kids grew up here, so we celebrate both the Indian and American festivals. My kids love 4th of July, Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. We celebrate it in a not-religious manner and concentrate of the food, decoration, entertaining, gift giving etc. We have a large group of Indian friends from different regions, so we all celebrate one or two of our favorite festivals in a big way and our friends join us for potluck.

Some of the things that we have adopted and given it a Indian twist is for the kids - Diwali gift exchange, and making and hanging diwali ornaments.
We have also created some diwali traditions like throwing native wild flower seeds in a meadow near our house and also hanging some bird feeders for the fall and winter.

Why would you strip away the religious aspect? How whitewashed and bland...

[Anonymous]

Can the PP with the long list please provide her recipe for microwaved sweets? That sounds awesome!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can the PP with the long list please provide her recipe for microwaved sweets? That sounds awesome!

https://www.vidhyashomecooking.com/instant-ricotta-cheese-kalakand-microwave-kalakand-recipe/

Ricotta Cheese Kalakand,

You can also make different shapes with the same kalakand mix, like making round balls and pressing down with a empty thread spool to make a design, and add some fun food coloring.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not OP but I have toddlers and love these suggestions! I really want to prioritize Indian celebrations as they grow up - take a day or two off work so we can prepare for Puja in a relaxed manner. And spend a couple weekends before doing holiday-related arts and crafts to make those special memories.

My kids grew up here, so we celebrate both the Indian and American festivals. My kids love 4th of July, Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. We celebrate it in a not-religious manner and concentrate of the food, decoration, entertaining, gift giving etc. We have a large group of Indian friends from different regions, so we all celebrate one or two of our favorite festivals in a big way and our friends join us for potluck.

Some of the things that we have adopted and given it a Indian twist is for the kids - Diwali gift exchange, and making and hanging diwali ornaments.
We have also created some diwali traditions like throwing native wild flower seeds in a meadow near our house and also hanging some bird feeders for the fall and winter.

Why would you strip away the religious aspect? How whitewashed and bland...

We are not Christians. For us, Christmas is a social celebration, rather than a religious celebration. We are not going to church etc. We primarily celebrate it the same way as we do Halloween. We focus on the decorations, food, gift giving, meeting family and friends. We also use it as a time to give gifts to teachers to show our appreciation because there is no national holiday celebrating teachers in this country.

And, I have no problems in borrowing fun and useful things from any culture that I encounter here, because why live in a silo when you have been given an opportunity to pick and select whatever appeals to you?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NP.

We do many of the things on the pp’s awesome list and also fill up two shopping carts of food at Costco to donate at our nearby food bank.

[Anonymous]

Here is a no cook chocolate laddu recipe.

It uses marie or parle biscuits, chocolate powder, condensed milk, powdered nuts and desiccated coconut powder. It tastes like Almond Joy!

https://thekaravaliwok.com/choco-biscuit-ladoo/

[Anonymous]

Rangoli -

You can make your own colored sand by mixing playsand with holi colors or food colors.

[Anonymous]

Chocolate gold coins....do a treasure hunt for the kids around the house.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:http://narmadawinery.com/

They have an annual Diwali event. Check Sulekha.com for other events.

I am betting you are a North Indian!

I bet you are one of those who love to focus and discuss north-south Indian crap. I don’t know what my comment has got to do with this?!