Diwali Celebration – Show-and-Tell & Meet-and-Greet (November 2020)
Diwali,our biggest festival, is almost here. It is a festival when we celebrate the victory of light over darkness and also knowledge over ignorance; it is a festival when we clean and decorate our houses and also our minds and thoughts; it is a festival when we meet and greet our friends and family members and also our true self. I am sure all of you are also as excited as I am!
First, please accept my heartiest wishes on the arrival of this pious festival: Diwali! As you know, for the last several years, we have been celebrating all of the major festivals, especially Diwali, together. Even though we cannot meet each other in person this year, it must not mean we will miss the Diwali fun this year. We will celebrate it – and celebrate it with full enthusiasm. Like the majority of the events this year, we will use creative ways to make it yet another memorable experience.
Here is the plan for the Diwali celebration:
- The monthly hawan will start at 5:00 pm.
- At 6:00 pm, we will do Diwali poojan
- At 6:30 pm, we will have a show-and-tell and meet-and-greet event – followed by fireworks
Hawan: all the hawan families are requested to join in their best Indian dresses. Please have your zoom camera setup in a way that all of you and your pooja place are fully visible.
Diwali Poojan: Please have all the Diwali poojan samagri ready beforehand. While we will not be able to taste the yum-yum sweets (Diwali prasad) that we typically share on this day, please show them anyway. Be it rasgulla, gulab-jamun, jalebi, ras-malai, or any sweets, let’s virtually distribute them as the Diwali prasad.
Show-and-tell & meet-and-greet: Diwali is one festival when we decorate our homes and welcome our friends and family; and, then we reciprocate the same by visiting them. Let’s not allow Covid dampen the spirit. During this slot, every hawan family is expected to show their house to us as if all of us are visiting them. Say, you created a rangoli, exhibit it; built a small yet enriched temple, show it; adorned your yard with lines of diyas, present it. Also, use this time to wish a happy diwali to your hawan group family. As you can see, this time, we do not have a kids assignment – but rather have a family assignment. Shine, my friends! 🙂
As some families may have plans to visit their friends on this day, at this time, please feel free to proceed to your other programs. We will continue our call on zoom where some of the hawan members will share live fireworks with others.
We are so looking forward to seeing you, celebrating the festival with you, and adding yet another chapter of beautiful memories with you!
Best Regards,
Harsh Mendiratta