Deepavali Celebrations!

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View this email in your browser Namaste, Deepavali is 7 days away! We are all busy with our lives yet we will be cleaning our homes, create a beautiful space for our Diwali celebrations and plan to recreate snacks and sweets that our parents and grandparents made for us! We are passing down seeds of our heritage and watch it blossom!  Rangoli, Diya,Toran and creative ways sparkle our homes and our front yard. We are bringing joy, color and mood enhancing symbols of happiness into the evenings that get dark too soon!  Every day in these auspicious phase of the month is celebrated for a special reason. Nov 11th is Gau Dwadashi, 12th is Dhan Teras, 13th is Kali Chaudas and 14th is Diwali.  Many Bharatiya people celebrate the 1st day after Diwali as their New year and the 2nd day after as Bhai Dooj, Kansa Vadh Nov 24th, Tulsi Pooja Nov 26th. Once we start lighting a lamp in Pooja area it goes on until Kartika Poornima that is the full moon day Nov 29th! We do these simple acts voluntarily so that we carry forward traditions that are steeped in reason, science and logic. Let us dress up in our ethnic wear, jewelry and a radiant smile to illuminate our minds and souls!   We have announced the HTS Balvihar Diwali Contest. We ask each Balvihar Family to send us pictures and videos of your Diwali corner with your family! You may also share a 30-50 second video explaining your corner! We will announce the winner family on Diwali Sunday Nov 14th at noon on our HTS Balvihar FB and HTS Balvihar Instagram page. We are super excited to see all your entries! All Balvihar families are eligible to win this contest! Please email your pictures, videos to Htsbalvihar@gmail.com This Sunday our Bhaasha and Dharma classes will focus on our most important festival. We encourage all students to dress up in ethnic wear that is comfortable for you. At 9:30 am , we will start our Morning Mantra, Aarti, Janmdin Geet and then join our language classes from 10:10 am till 10:40 am. You will then join your religion classes from 10:45 am till 11:25 am. Please make a note of these changed timings. Classes are 30 minutes long. Using the same link as Morning Mantra, we will meet for Satsangh at 11:30am so that all our children may perform our Balvihar Lakshmi Pooja. These are the items you will need to put in front of the children before they are linked on Satsangh. A small picture or idol of Lord Ganesha and Ma Lakshmi. 2 pinch of Haldi (Turmeric) and Kumkum. (vermillion)  Few grains of Mantra Akshate. (rice) Few petals of flowers or leaves. A fruit or dry fruits or sugar. Paper towel. Spoon. small cup with 4 spoons of water. A coin. (quarter, dime, penny) A clean plate. (paper, steel, copper or silver) We will talk about why Pooja is an important part of our culture and how and why it is done. We will sing Aarti afterwards and keep these pooja items in our kitchen so that our entire family can get the blessings. It is important for the entire family to sit together. We want to show our children that even though they are the ones doing Pooja, it is important for all of us to be together for this. Our aim is to be done by noon so that we may all carry this enthusiasm to start decorating our front door, our Pooja room, and our entire homes with the color and festivity of Diwali. We request you to plan a fun lunch with your family, this will continue the tradition of our Balvihar children enjoying a fun meal after Diwali Pooja. Join us as we bring in positivity, health, hope and happiness in your homes and share it with our community! May this auspicious week be all that you are hoping for. We appreciate you and your amazing support! Do not forget to show your love to our Teachers, youth teachers who are all planning special classes for this important week! Jai Ma Lakshmi, Jai Shri Raama! Happy Deepavali! Copyright © *|CURRENT_YEAR|* *|LIST:COMPANY|*, All rights reserved. *|IFNOT:ARCHIVE_PAGE|* *|LIST:DESCRIPTION|* Our mailing address is: *|HTML:LIST_ADDRESS_HTML|* *|END:IF|* Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list. *|IF:REWARDS|* *|HTML:REWARDS|* *|END:IF|*