This week Indian communities in Auckland will celebrate Diwali.
The Auckland Diwali Festival takes its inspiration from Diwali or Deepavali (row of lamps), an important and ancient Indian festival celebrated throughout India and in Indian communities around the world. Indians will celebrate the week with family and friends, dressing in traditional clothing, exchanging Indian sweets or gifts, cooking and eating together and enjoying song and dance.
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Blue Guru Indian music and dance troupeThis week our Indian cultural team will create a few rangoli patterns to welcome guests near the entrance to our house, our school.The bright patterns encourage the goddess Lakshmi to enter, and bring positive energy to our environment. Please come and observe these students create their design outside the Technology Room this week (weather dependent). |
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| Day one of our 2016 rangoli |
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| Mahi's rangoli design |
The word 'rangoli' is derived from the words 'rang' and 'aavalli' which refers to a row of colours. The design usually follows a certain theme. The central design or motif is symbolic and represents natural elements like birds, snakes, fish, flowers, sun, moon or a flower. It usually has a geometric and symmetrical shape, which expresses the infiniteness of time. A rangoli is often bordered by a lotus design, to represent the goddess Lakshmi. The lotus symbolises the beginning of life.
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| Mrs Pinto drawing a design for day two |
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| Mrs Pinto with Tanesha and Mahi |
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| Helpers working on the rangoli |
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| Brike & Zayan were hard at work using their hands |
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| Mahi's second design being filled in on day two |
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| Mrs Pinto's design with colour |
