Diwali: Helping Children Understand Different Holidays

The other day in our parenting group, one mother brought up the fact that her two-year-old was going to learn about Diwali that day at preschool—but she knew nothing about the holiday herself! She was worried that she wouldn't be able to provide any meaningful context for him when he came home. She also wondered how to talk to her son about the meaning of a religious holiday their family did not celebrate.

I admitted that I knew almost nothing about Diwali myself, but we talked about how important it is for children to be able to enjoy and understand one another's traditions, and to begin to understand that there are different religions and different religious practices.

Another mother in the group explained the holiday to us and its context within the Hindu religion. She and her family celebrate Diwali and she told us about what they were going to do this year.

But she also told us that growing up in a Hindu family, she always heard the story of the holiday told from the male point of view and that she had decided a couple of years ago to write the story from the feminine point of view so that her children, as well as others, could learn the story in a new way.

And she told us the story: she explained that the holiday about about Sita, the daughter of earth and an incarnation of the Goddess Lakshmi, and how she was kidnapped by the evil Ravan. She told us that the first Diwali was the celebration of Sita’s return to the Kingdom of Ayodhya after being saved by Rama. And she went on to say that this story is about Sita’s courage both quiet and loud, never to be mistaken for meekness.

At this time of year, there are a lot of holidays, and it may be confusing for young children, especially those in preschool and kindergarten. Help them out!

You can explain a little about religion to them. This is a complex topic, but one that can be simply explained to begin with, if you haven't done so already. You can tell your child that religion is something that helps people to know what to believe—and that people who are one religion believe certain things and people who are a different religion believe different things. You can tell them about what you believe and which holidays you prefer to celebrate—but you can also help them to understand all the different holidays they will see celebrated at school and in their communities.

And if you or your children (ages 7 and over) want to know more about the first Diwali, you can read about it through the eyes of Sita and learn how she won the battle of good over evil in the book written by our group member.¹