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| Rangoli: Singapore Art Science Museum |
Deepavali marks the return of the good King Lord Rama and his wife Sita after 14 years in exile. Lord Rama and Sita return home after defeating the evil demon Ravana. As legend goes Rama and Sita could see the way home through the dark because the people had lit the way with diyas (oil lamps).
During Deepavali the Goddess of Wealth Lakshmi also pays a visit to our homes. of course she stays in the most welcoming and cleanest of homes! So this is a time for a thorough clean of one's quarters and for displaying colourful lights and decorations around the house.
You can celebrate Deepavali with your kids by lighting a candles or displaying lights in your entryway or balcony to welcome Rama, Sita and Lakshmi into your home.
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| Colourful Deepavali decorations in Little India, Singapore |
We also mark the date by making colourful rangoli or geometric patterns made from coloured rice or chalk powder. A quick google search and you can see the professionals in action. Above is an example of some rangoli which we went to see here in Singapore, created by woman at the Singapore Arts and Science Museum.
Constructing a rangoli display at home is easy - use your creativity! I have in the past made coloured rice myself (ziplock bag, colouring, rice... voila). This year I splashed out and bought rice at the Deepavali Market here in Singapore - I could not resist the amazing colours!
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| Miss May's rangoli inspired art |
Miss May really really really loves rangoli. She played for hours with the coloured rice - it's a nice tactile activity and as much as she loves creating with other kids, I would just as often find her quietly doing her own thing.
In our home we managed to go an entire day without disrupting our special rangoli display. We did it using those giant Ikea cookie cutters (which until now had sat dormant in our kitchen cupboard... honestly who makes cookies that big?)... anyway, cheating I know but it was our first big effort at the rangoli and it looked great... if not a little abstract!!
We took a three pronged approach to doing rangoli with the kids at the party. First we started with chalk installations - we drew large circles on the ground and the kids filled it in with shapes and or patterns.
We then introduced flower buds and petals to add a bit of colour and another, more natural medium.
Finally we introduced coloured rice and let them run wild! Initially I had thought using coloured paper discs would make the clean-up a little easier but in actual fact trying to maintain any sense of order was near impossible!
The yellow paper was however useful in defining a workspace for each child, and it also made it easy to re-use the rice (ie once one little artist had been distracted and left the scene and another little artist arrived)!
Needless to say there was quite a mess to sweep up the next morning!
Of course no Deepavali celebration would be complete without great Indian food followed by sparklers and firecrackers. At our party our very generous Indian hosts provided what seemed like an endless stock of sparklers, poppers and bangers (technical terms!!) for the kids.
I will admit there was some trepidation amongst the Aussies and Brits given that (in Australia at least) most of the sparklers that were on offer probably required a fireworks license. However we soon warmed up and no-one was hurt.... on the contrary it was AWESOME FUN!!
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| The Deepavali girls + one handsome boy and ring-in in a tutu!! |
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| Miss P decides that Deepavali calls for a costume change and ditches the tutu!! |
