Celebrating Diwali at IST

November 17, 2012-

Happy Diwali!!!

The school sent home an invitation to a Diwali celebration hosted by the Indian community at IST (the girls' school).  On the invitation it mentioned something about a catered Indian dinner….now that's something we can hardly turn down!!!

I'll be honest with you I had no idea what Diwali actually was. I had to read about it on wikipedia! Do you know what it is??? It's an Indian celebration known as the Festival of Lights. And apparently there are lots of different ways to spell it Diwali, Devali, Deepavali (maybe more?).  

The celebration took place in the IST cafeteria on Saturday evening.  

Let me tell you….the wonderful smells and sights (flower petals arranged in pretty designs on the floor with lit candles) was just the nicest welcome!

The Indian community had a lovely and elaborate (but fun) evening planned…food, games, more food, more games, listening to music, dancing and fireworks as the grand finale.  Plus they also had some lovely things for sale (jewelry and snacks)…and how can I forget the beautiful henna designs one Indian mom patiently painted on her customers???

Beautiful decorations created using flower petals and candles (be careful where you step!):

Yummy appetizers! Actually, we initially thought this was the meal so we ate a little more than we should have!

One game we played…Finding Your (animal) Family. Everyone was given an animal on a sheet of paper.  You had to make the sound of that animal and find your animal family members.  Ava's group was the first to locate all their family members!

Ava and her kindergarten friend, Anais, posing with their prizes

Ava's prize: a pair of doll shaped piggy banks. Cute!

After watching a ceremony, playing a few games (Mark and I joined in one of the games…tying ropes), listening to music it's time for dinner!

The dinner was served buffet-style.  Yum!  Oh…it smells SO GOOD!!!  Can you smell it?  

One loaded plate! The only things I wasn't as fond of were the two bread-like balls. The rest of it was DELICIOUS!

Annika waited very patiently (more like 45 minutes!) to get a lovely henna design drawn on her hand.

After eating…it's time for music and dancing!!!

Ava pausing for a second..

After all the food, music, dancing, games…it's time for the Grand Finale!!!  Booming, exploding fireworks!

Playing with sparklers. Ever since Ava burned her fingers playing with one a couple years ago she still refuses to go near them.

Ava wearing her new necklace and watching the fireworks from a safe distance

 A hearty THANK YOU to the Indian Community for inviting us to this wonderful celebration!  We sincerely appreciated this wonderful evening!!!!