Diwali Festival is happening this week!
Diwali (in Hindi), also known as Deepavali (in Tamil) is an ancient Hindu festival of lights. This colourful five-day festival coincides with the Hindu New Year, celebrating new beginnings. As part of the celebration, people place hundreds of small oil lamps or diyas, around their homes! This week is Diwali! There are many activities you can do with your little ones that relate to the Diwali festival.
Try creating some Mehndi Art in your centre or home! Little hands will love this messy play activity and it's a super easy tabletop activity to set up.
Women prepare for Diwali by not only adorning themselves in jewellery but also participating in the age-old tradition of Mehndi art.
Mehndi or Henna is a paste made from leaves of the Henna plant. The leaves are dried, crushed and mixed with essential oils and lemon juice to form a paste. The paste is then applied to the skin in a similar way to icing in a piping bag. Once the paste dries, it is then dusted off and leaves an orange stain on the top layer of the skin.
For This Activity You Will Need:
- Non-Toxic Paints - Lot's of different colours.
- Paintbrushes / earbuds - other painting utensils
- Example images of painted hands
Using the hand stencil and the photographs of mehndi/henna hand design in this booklet, set up a tabletop activity alongside all sorts of colours and paint.
You could paint the children's hand with non-toxic paint as an example of Henna painting. You could use earbuds (great for dots) or small thin paintbrushes to paint with.
Or just be brave and use bright colours and let the kids paint themselves!
Check out more activities like this one in our *Instant Download* Diwali Resource Kit.
