Our India Carnival
On Tuesday morning our family and friends came to Circle Hall that was beautifully transformed into an Indian Temple with colorful decorations and pictures of elephants. To start off our carnival, Purnima welcomed us in the traditional Indian way by bowing and saying “Namaste” and then she performed two traditional dances. Simran said a Hindu prayer to the elephant god Ganesh. Simran taught us a lullaby called “Chanda Mamma door se”. Then we performed a dance to the music of India.
After that, Diane narrated the basket workshop performance of the story of the elephant god, Ganesh. In this story a young Princess named Parvati (Sherrene) met a young prince called Shiva (Anthony). The two of them fell in love immediately and were married by the priest (Stephen). They moved to a mountain top to live in a temple. Shiva was not at home that often because he went out to create the world. Meanwhile Parvati stayed at home by herself and wished that she could have a baby. One day that wish came true. They had a baby boy named Ganesh (Wes) and all of the Gods came and welcomed him. But one God looked straight at him and turned him into ash. The two parents were very sad over this because they thought they lost their child. But then a nicer God (Stephen) came and took Ganesh to the old elephant that lived in the jungle and there he got an elephant’s head. Then baby Ganesh was returned to his parents and they lived happily ever after in their temple on the hill.
In our second story, John and a couple of companions and co-workers acted out the story of Rama and Sita. In this story, there once lived a very beautiful princess named Sita (Laurel). She was so beautiful that all of the men wanted her hand in marriage. When a very handsome prince named Rama (Jason) completed all of her tasks, Sita agreed to marry him. Meanwhile in Sri Lanka, there was a jealous prince (Aiden) who also wanted to marry Sita. The jealous prince planned to abduct Sita with his thugs to bring her back to Sri Lanka. When Rama found out about this, he gathered his ally Hanuman who built a bridge to cross the waters to Sri Lanka. When Rama and Hanuman got to the island, Hanuman cast a spell which froze everybody. This allowed Rama to take Sita back to his home where they lived happily ever after.
During our lunch meal, everyone was served Kheer, a dessert from India.
In the afternoon, we gathered back into Circle Hall and there Robin told us a story called ‘The Wind and the Moon’. In this last story of the carnival two unlikely friends, a lion (Mr. Skuse) and a tiger (Norbie) were arguing over what is the weather on the moon. One said it was windy. The other one said it was cold. They argued for a little while and then they went to a monk for the correct answer. He said that they were both right. In the end, the lion and the tiger hugged and became close friends
After that we went outside and had rickshaw races. The races were done with a baby buggy inside a wheelbarrow.
On Wednesday afternoon, we had a good bye party for our co-worker Pia. She returned home to Switzerland.
Everybody loved to dress up in Indian clothing.
Simran taught us a song and helped us make beautiful decorations.
The story of Ganesh
Dancing with Purnima