Theme: The Hindu festival of Diwali, ways to celebrate, legends and superstitions.
Lexical area: Celebrations
Cross curricular links: Religion, citizenship, social studies

Instructions for language assistants in Italics

Classroom materials

Introduction
These materials focus on the topic of festivals using Diwali as a starting point for talking about festivals in your students' country of origin. If you are able to get any pictures to support this topic use them to elicit the key words before students do the activities. How much do students know about India? Have they ever eaten Indian food? Explain that curry is the UK’s most popular dish!

The language suggested by students for Task 1 will very much depend on their level .If you have intermediate students and up you could brainstorm around the word ‘light’: Is it a positive word? Do you know of any festivals associated with light?

1. Word association
You can do this exercise either by getting students to work in small groups or pairs and think of words they associate with the topic, or you can do it as a circle game by involving the whole class. Just start the chain by saying the first word yourself and work round the class until everyone has added a word that they associate with festivals. Then give the students a couple of minutes to write down as many of the words as they can remember from around the class.

Task 1 Word association
What types of things do you associate with the words: festival - food - parties?



2. Festivals in your town
Get your students to work on these questions in pairs and to try to think of as much detail as possible about the various festivals and what happens. They can then tell the class what they know and others can join in.

Task 2 Festivals in your town
Are there any festivals celebrated in the Autumn in your region or town? Are any of them religious?



3. My favourite festivals
Put the paragraph headings up on the board, then get students to work individually and read the text. They can then compare their answers in pairs.

Task 3 My favourite festivals
Read the text and match these headings to each paragraph:

• Celebrations in the temple
• Diwali and families
• Celebrations in Leicester
• The meaning of Diwali
• The legend associated with Diwali

• Who celebrates Diwali?
• What does Diwali celebrate?
• When do people celebrate?

4. Post reading
This task is suited to lower levels but can be skipped with higher level classes. Do the description around the class, paying attention to their use of the Present Simple. Encourage use of linking words/phrases like: after that, and then, next, before..ing or after..ing, finally.

Task 4 Post reading

• Describe a typical Diwali day for Erisha:
  
  “She gets up in her cousin’s house and then she... “

• Describe three things people do to celebrate Diwali.

5. Interpretation
This task can be done as a whole class.

Task 5 Interpretation

• Why are the celebrations in Leicester special? They are larger and more spectacular than other places/they are special to Erisha because she shares them with family members/ Leicester has the UK’s largest Hindu population.

• Why is Diwali important for families? It is a chance to all be together/It is a time for making friends and forgiving other people/it is a time to visit family members you may not usually see often.

6. Superstitions
This task requires use of the first conditional: If you do X, Y will happen Students may need prompting so give them a couple of examples of superstitions in your family or country: If you walk under a ladder it will bring you bad luck. Guide students as much as needed with prompts: are there any superstitions related to good luck? Bad luck? Numbers? Weather? If your class are able and interested: are people in their country superstitious? Is there any foundation in superstition? Old wives’ tales?

Task 6 Superstitions

• What will happen if you light your house well during the 5 days of Diwali?
• Are there any superstitions in your country or town?
• Are any superstitions associated with festivals?

7. Legends
Build this legend with lower levels but ask more advanced groups to do it in pairs. There should be no referring back to the text!

Task 7 Legends
Retell the legend of Diwali in your own words. Use these words to help you:

Are there any legends in your area?

Are they associated with:

• particular times of the year (Spring/Winter/Autumn)?
• special days?
• local or national festivals?
• religious festivals?

8. My favourite festival
With higher levels you can enrich this activity by encouraging description of feelings, memories associated with special times and adjectives to make their conversation more interesting.

Task 8 My favourite festival
Make notes on your favourite festival or a special day that you celebrate with friends or family. Think of these things:

• food
• clothes
• music
• customs
• activities.

Interview each other about your favourite festival.



Internet links
http://www.clickwalla.com/index The biggest Asian site in the UK with lots of Diwali celebration details and activities.
http://www.diwali.co.uk An excellent site giving loads of information about Diwali.

By Clare Lavery

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