Festivals are an expression of joy and connect with man’s highest aspirations and deepest yearnings. Deepawali, the festival of lights, is a prayer set in motion characterizing our natural inclination for things that are bright and beautiful and expressed so beautifully in Vedic hymn, “ tamso ma jyotirgamaya” ( From darkness unto light ). Symbolically this festival reminds us of our primary responsibility to pursue the path of light and represents the brilliance of life in health, wealth, happiness, victory, courage, sharing, joy and enlightenment.
Staford School was abuzz with preparations for Diwali on 22nd of October 2014, with the pre-primary and the primary section all set to celebrate Diwali through the special assembly organized on this occasion. The tiny tots triggered the beginning of the four day long festival of Diwali by lighting a lamp and firing up the festivities with their enthusiastic and energetic performances. The tiny tots had the school’s attention completely in their control with a plethora of items which included rhymes on diwali, a song- Diwali aye re and a foot tapping dance-Happy Diwali. The kindergarteners presented yet another zesty dance on a medley of songs and even spelled out the significance of Diwali in one liners. Each performance by the little ones who were dressed up in all of diwali fineries had the teachers and the Principal clapping and smiling spontaneously.
The Primary section celebrated Diwali with fervor and chose to underscore several messages through their presentations. Their special assembly also started with the lighting of a diya-symbolic of illuminating lives with knowledge. Next, the children paid tribute to the reigning deities of this festival, goddess Lakshmi and saraswati through a dance rendition of jaya he madhusudan kaamini. Next, Khushi Mehtab of Class VA enumerated different traditions of Diwali to help children understand the social context of the festival. This was followed by a poem by Dhairya Gupta and Sparsh Pandey of Class VIA entitled It’s the festival of light today, which brought a ripple of joy and recreated the excitement that children feel on the approach of this festival. A skit on Diwali as a festival that encourages the joy of giving, was presented by the children of class V, VI and VII. This skit sent underscored the message that joy from possessing and enjoying is nothing compared to the joy of giving. A brief presentation “Say no to crackers “ sent a positive message to all Stafordians and to the society as a whole to conserve the environment. Towards the end of the celebrations, the children of classes IV to VII presented a skit- an enactment of the return of Lord Rama from 14 years of exile after vanquishing the forces of evil, to highlight the traditional significance of Diwali. The grand finale to the celebrations came in the form of the song aayee diwali aayee re which had the whole school singing in chorus and boosting the positive energy up several notches.
The special assembly on Diwali this year, urged our students to celebrate Diwali with a good cause, to experience the joy of giving, to be environment friendly and enjoy a noiseless Diwali and above all to spread the light of happiness through understanding and caring. If we care even a little bit about the society we can easily light up lives of the needy by spending the amount we would have spent on firecrackers, on some good and noble cause, helping the poor and the needy. The assembly concluded with a few words from our Hon. Principal Ma’am who encouraged the children to resolve to celebrate Diwali by lighting oil lamps and saving electricity, by experiencing the joy of giving, and enjoying a noiseless, pollution free Diwali.