Celebrating the Sikh festival of Bandi Chhor Divas

4th November 2021

We were excited to finish off our Sikhism work with a celebration of the Sikh festival of Bandi Chhor Divas which is on the same day as the Hindu Diwali. 

This festival celebrates the liberation of 52 Hindu princes thanks to the 6th Sikh Guru:  Guru Hargobind.  The children learned about his story in RE on Monday and we celebrated on Thursday.  Our day included re-creating his chola (coat/cloak) with many tassels (one for each prince to hold on to) represented by handprints from all the children. 

We thought about langar (shared food) as an important part of Sikh culture as well as using lights and (pictures of) fireworks to represent the spark of light from God in all of us according to both Hindu and Sikh beliefs.  Mrs Stiansen did some Bollywood dancing with the children too!  What a memorable day we had – the children were excellent.