We learned about the festival of Diwali which is celebrated by people all over the world. The two religions who celebrate Diwali are Hinduism and Sikhism. We talked about the fact that you don’t have to belong to a religion in order to join a celebration. Some of us asked some fantastic questions such as: ‘Do you have to be born a Hindu or can you become one?’ and ‘What do Hindus do at Christmas?’ . Others noticed that lots of religions celebrate light and near to Christmas, Christians celebrate Christingle. We found it really interesting that Hindus believe in not one god but many gods and goddesses-we will be finding out more about them.

The story of Rama and Sita is remembered and told on Diwali as it represents good triumphing over evil. Hindus put lights called diyas in their houses to welcome Lakshmi, the Hindu goddess of wealth and prosperity. They also make beautiful rangoli patterns outside. We looked at some of these patterns and made clay tiles inspired by them. We learned about digging shapes out, building shapes up and joining the clay. When they are finished and dry, we are going to carefully add gold paint to highlight parts of the tiles. Some of us used the spare clay to make diva lamps.

We are really proud of our tiles and hope that you like them.