Diwali!!

Yesterday we celebrated Diwali in House of Hope. Diwali is one of the manin festivals in India - The New Year according to the Hinud Calendar.


Every year it is an incredible large celebration with fireworks, food and beautiful decorated homes. Lanterns, candles, flowers, and colored sand decorations on the floor all give the feeling of Christmas and New Year in the way we experienced in Holland.

Arriving at House of Hope we fun. All the children were dressed up with pretty saris and kurta pajama’s and all very happy to see us. The kids, staff and interns made up a group of over 30 people; all enjoying the party. After a buffet of Indian snacks and of course Biryani (rice with chicken and vegetables), we played games. BINGO was a great success and a challenge as well. False Bingos was pretty much the way it went and the kids had to perform songs when they made up their own winnings giving the evening a lot of performances!

We all had great fun. A few children won every round and their response was that they had been praying before every round and that’s why they won!

At around 9:00pm the area became a quite dangerous caused by the fireworks flying around. Amazing how the Indian people enjoy NOISE! My ears are still beeping, but the kids had a great time! The cool part is that we can do this twice a year… since December is on its way!