This week has been full of celebrations for Diwali!
Diwali, also called the “Festival of Lights”, is India’s biggest and most important holiday of the year. Taking place over five days, the festival this year spanned from October 22-26. The main celebration takes place on the third day of the festival, where families gather together to pray, followed by feasts and fireworks to light up the night. Diwali is celebrated in diverse ways, as each region of India observes different traditions during the festival, and tells various stories of the origin of the holiday. Though traditions may vary, the common theme for the holiday is to embrace the triumph of good over evil, and light over darkness. The most widespread custom during the festival is the lighting of diyas, or small clay lamps filled with oil.
Our biggest Diwali celebration this week was the Parents’ Association’s Breakfast My Way, hosted by Yellow Cluster parents Akshay and Keech Shetty. The breakfast featured a menu of traditional Indian food:
- Aloo Ki Sabzi with methi paratha: Aloo Ki Sabzi, a traditional Indian potato curry cooked without onion or garlic, and Methi paratha, which is Indian flatbread with wheat flour, vegetable oil and fenugreek leaves, brushed with ghee.
- Uttapam with coconut chutney: Uttapam are classic and traditional South Indian Breakfast pancakes made with fermented rice lentil batter. Coconut chutney is a traditional South Indian condiment made by blending fresh coconut meat with chillies, cumin, ginger and salt.
- Masala chai, an Indian beverage made by brewing black tea with spices, sugar and milk.
Akshay and Keech gave a few remarks to introduce the event, including a telling of one of the origin stories of the festival. Akshay, who is originally from Mumbai, told a story of a bride who had been kidnapped from a good king and taken to a faraway island. After a battle against the evil king who had taken her, the good king rescued his bride and brought her back to the mainland. On the way back to their town, they were greeted by millions of lights, to both guide them back to the town, and to act as a celebration of the successful rescue. In this story, the town’s celebration exemplifies the name Festival of Lights.
Akshay closed his remarks with gratitude towards Gaynor for the school’s rich community, saying, “It’s a great moment, a great holiday, a great week to bring people together, bring communities together, to celebrate each other’s differences. When I think of Stephen Gaynor School I think it represents what Diwali is.”
Speaking directly to Head of School Dr. Scott Gaynor, he added, “You have created this incredible community, this incredible school, and have transformed the lives of so many of our kids. Looking around here, this is what Diwali does. It celebrates this sense of community, this sense of coming together, and this sense of togetherness so thank you, thank you for setting this up, thank you for bringing us together.”
The mouthwatering smell of food continued to draw parents in, as they mingled and enjoyed the breakfast and decorations in the EC Garden. This was the fourth Breakfast My Way at Gaynor, and we look forward to the next one later this year on December 14.
The week also included multiple student observances of Diwali, with various student-led presentations in the Lower Division. In Room 303, Orange Cluster students learned about Diwali from Nainika Y., who celebrated the holiday with her family and brought in a book for the class to read together, called “Celebrate the World: Diwali.” The students also watched a short video about Diwali’s name as the “Festival of Lights.”
In Orange Cluster Room 404, Rohan M. did a presentation explaining special sweets that are eaten during the festival.
The Blue and Green Cluster Town Halls featured presentations about the origins of Diwali, and the different ways that people celebrate the holiday. At the end of the town hall meeting, each student got to take home a flame-less version of a diya, with a clay lamp on the bottom, but an LED candle on top. The week has been full of learning and celebration, aligning with our mission to embrace and celebrate diversity.