Various Celebrations that are Conducted in Schools

Festival Celebrations in School encourages students to be more interactive with their classmates, thus helping them form bonds as equals. Schools must incorporate festivities into their academic calendar in order to teach students the importance of cultural identity and also the need for them to be expressive about their respective traditions in a friendly and respectable manner.

Given below are few of the festivals that could be celebrated in all schools nationwide.

·         Raksha Bandhan: An age old tradition that has been upheld till date, Raksha Bandhan teaches the students to be respect their fellow classmates. This event could be celebrated with grandeur, various dance forms and plays depiction various periods in history would be a great way to instill a sense of belongingness in the children.

·         Independence Day: As future citizens of the nation, it is important for the students to be well versed in the history behind the independence struggle of the country. This could easily be accomplished on the 15 of August every year by hosting a grand celebration to commemorate the day on which the struggle for freedom finally yielded results. Various dramas which enact the historic events during the colonial rule could take place so that the students understand the privilege that has been handed down to them by the previous generations.

·         Teachers Day: Teacher are an integral part of the life of students, as they impart upon them the knowledge that is required in order to strive during the various stages of life without many troubles and also so that the younger generation could learn to over come the various difficulties that they may face in the future. Thus, it is important to honor the hard work and dedication of these esteemed members of the society. The students could collectively organize fun activities as well as put up entertaining shows for their teachers.

·         Republic Day: The citizens of the nation are entitled to certain rights which can’t under any circumstances be denied to them. The concept behind the need to for giving all the residents of the country equal rights must be explained to the children in  fun manner. Republic day provides such an opportunity, the constitution was legalized on this very day and has high historic and political significance to the people. Necessary events could be conducted on this day, the 26^th of January, to celebrate one of the greatest milestones in the history of the country. 

·         Annual Day:Taking in to consideration the need for students to bring out their creative side, annual days become common in school across the nation. Out of all the festival celebrations in school, this is considered to be very popular among the students as it presents itself as a chance to be expressive and innovative in front of large audience. It is also a method to relive the students of the tension of the upcoming exams and thus guiding them to think outside the box.

There is no wisdom greater than Kindness

A school is a place meant for the overall development of the children. A major part of what a child learns in a day is learned in school. Learning occurs not only in the classroom taught sessions, but in numerous subtle ways throughout the day. A good school is one that only provides children with means of developing their knowledge, but also their EQ, that is the Emotional Quotient, which is as important, in fact, more important than IQ. Children should be taught not just the subjects, but also the humanitarian arts. Teaching the kids to be good human beings is of utmost importance, and the role of school in this matter cannot be emphasized enough.

Kindness Day is celebrated on the 13^th of November every year, since 1998 in several countries all over the World. Kindness is perhaps the most beautiful quality in a person, a quality that seems to be wuthering in this fast-paced life, where people do not have time to spare for others. Kindness and compassion bond the millions of people on this planet. It is the basic essence of being a human. Put simply, kindness is the quality of being friendly, generous and considerate- the three pillars of human society. Hence, it is very essential that the children be made aware of what it means to be a part of something bigger, greater and wholesome.

Holistique Learning believes in inculcating this very basic quality in school children, through specially curated Kindness Activities and sessions. The impacts of such endeavors are:

·         Developing mutual respect and consideration amongst the students

·         To teach the children to be bigger than oneself, to not live in a world that revolves around only oneself.

·         To be helpful to fellow students.

·         To understand the impact of peer pressure, bullying, and such negative communal behavior.

·         To be more accepting of differently-abled kids around, and encourage peer bonding.

·         To inculcate gratitude

·         Bring a positive environment and boosted self-esteem amongst all the children.

Holistique Learning provides planned sessions for Kindness Assembly in school, to celebrate this extremely winsome character trait in the children. Using various mediums of expressions like speeches, plays, artworks, ppts, videos, interactive recreations, these Kindness Activities aim to introduce the children to the beautiful world reigned by Kindness, and all the positivity and happiness that it shall bring into the lives of every individual.

Programs with detailed schematic proceedings are specially curated for children of standard 4^th to 10^th, the highly flexible budding ages that requires proper molding and guidance. Holistique Learning offers customizable plans to schools, to assist in conducting Kindness Activities in The Kindness Assembly. In fact, school assemblies are an ideal place to inculcate this, as it is perhaps the first thing that the students do in the morning, and what better way to start a day than with some kindness?  It also provides an opportunity to bring together the entire school to participate in activities that are extremely necessary for the human community.

Instill emotions of love and empathy into young minds

Love and emotions have to be sowed from a young age. They say clay can be molded only until it is burned in the fire. So children, too learn what they are taught, witness and grow up in. As the generation gradually started living in nuclear families, the children nowadays lack to have moral values and ethics. The act of kindness and empathy for those in trouble has to be instilled through. Friendship is a strong emotional bond. To choose your beloved people, who are not your family and to stand for them in every obstacle and happy moments in life requires strong emotions and a selfless attitude to be built in. And this is taught to them through actions and activities in their corporate in their everyday life activity.

Holistique learning brings friendship day activities for your child

We celebrate friendship day every year every first Sunday of August. But only one day seems really less to express our gratitude and love for our beloved friends. And for those young souls, they must be reminded every day the importance of friendship. But at the same time expressing our emotions to our special ones is important. Therefore, on friendship day, we celebrate our friendship, express our love and gratitude. Holistique Learning says, the purpose of friendship day is to promote the role played by friendship in promoting peace and building strong relationships.

View of Holistique learning on friendship and its celebration

The emotions of friendship do not just strengthen and build one's character but also ensure peace and brotherhood among the people of this world. Empathy and kindness are the ability to understand how our act of kindness or a mere adjustment can pull someone from great misery. Empathy is a vital characteristic to be developed while building character. Relationships become stronger with love and empathy. An empathetic student is empowered with meaningful bonds, coping skills, communication, listening abilities, the power to face and overcome any challenges and grow up to be a person of great respect and values. Holistique Learning believes empathy paves the way to friendship. Empathy for one another leads to lesser conflicts and a better understanding of each other and therefore more of solving issues in friendship.

Friendship day activity by Holistique Learning

To nurture your children with values and friendship and shower them with emotions of love, empathy, and kindness, they have to be taught the purpose and vital role of friendship in life. And that is why Holistique Learning conducts Friendship Day Activity. It is a 60-minute workshop titled ‘An Empathetic friend is a true friend'. This workshop is mainly conducted for children of grades 1 to 5 in schools, under the required permission of the authority and parents. The friendship day activity plan only costs Rs. 2700 for each student including all taxes. As the international friendship day is celebrated on the first Sunday of August every year, the concerned school authority may collaborate to conduct the workshop before or after the designated date.

How can you organize Celebration Day in Schools?

Including celebration of activities in a schools' curriculum is a great way to initiate the growth process for the institution and engage everyone towards a positive goal set. During the School Celebration Days, general education for the knowledge of the students is also facilitated. It helps to bring in diversity and culture amidst the uniqueness that resides in every individual.

School Celebration Days are a way to weave out an atmosphere that is healthy and accepts every kind to move towards an inclusive community. All the students and the entire faculty of a school join hands to organize a celebration program with different Celebration Ideas For School.

Celebration Ideas For School can have a wide range of aspect according to the culture of each kind of state. However, events such as Children's Day, Teacher's Day, Republic Day, Independence Day, aid's day, environment day, sports day, annual day, foundation day are some of the common Celebration Ideas For School.

The celebration generally can last up to 2 to 3 hours depending on its category and type. For days such as sports day and annual day, the duration is usually long and time-consuming. These events require a lot of faculty members to engage in the activity for the smooth and successful organization of the event.

Organizing these events in school holds up great importance. It helps to inculcate values and knowledge to the growing minds that need to be aware of the worldly facts.

While arranging for a celebration day in school, there are three factors that must be kept in mind in order to achieve a certain goal that will be beneficiary in the long run. They are as follows:

●       Create Activities that can evaluate the sense of awareness in everyone. It is an important part of education and can help to develop the skills and personality of an individual.

●       On the contrary, it is important to set up events that throw up values on knowledge and skill. We all know for a fact that without action there is zero progress. To add on, we also know that practice makes a man perfect. Therefore, integrated programs that hold these set of values are extremely important and valuable to everyone.

●       Last but not least, inculcate programs that can influence and change the system in a positive way. Growth and progress are very important for the development of an institution. Change in the policies, procedures, and culture of an institution can help to introspect and realize what was missing in the system and what can be added for further development.

It is noted that children forever intent to remember the events and Festival Celebration in School for the strong impact that it creates. Apart from all the distribution of knowledge, skills, etc., these events also bring in love, harmony, and happiness in the environment. It helps a child as well as a teacher to bloom, blossom and thrives towards working and achieving something better always.

The importance of implementingNavratri Celebration Plan in schools?

Festivals are a wonderful way to celebrate the various forms of religious, cultural and other forms of unique beliefs and traditions that we are a part of. Especially when it comes to celebrating these activities with kids, the fun and enthusiasm involved are sky-high, not to mention that each of these celebrations is also aimed at teaching some sort of value(s) to them.

Holistique Learning and Navratri Celebrations

Keeping this in mind, Holistique Learning has planned Navratri Activity For Kids comprising of an assembly which can be conducted for various grades to teach them about the wonderful festival and educate them about the different types of celebratory rituals and worships involved in the festival.

Importance of Navratri Celebrations

This assembly is specifically aimed at teaching the religious significance of Navratri to school kids and explaining the mythological stories associated with each goddess of the nine-day-long festival. This assembly can be conducted on any one of the nine days of the Navratri festival and can be used all over the globe for schools from any country. It is up to the school to decide which grade/grades they would like to conduct the assembly for. They could conduct it for a specific grade, a few grades or even for all the grades starting from class 1 up to class 10. This assembly plan provides a beautiful series of events/activities/performances for Navratri Celebration Ideas in School.

Let us first look at what Navratri is, and how and why it is celebrated. This is a festival during which followers worship the goddess Durga in nine different forms, and thus the celebration is for nine nights. It is celebrated during the month of Ashwin as per the Hindu calendar. The nine days of this festival represent nine different forms of the goddess Durga-Shailaputri, Brahmacharini, Chandraghanta, Kushmanda, Skandamata, Katyayani, Kalaratri, Mahagauri, and Siddhidatri. There are mythological stories associated with each one of these goddesses above as well.

This assembly is therefore designed to highlight the same. It is celebrated from the 29th of September to the 7th of October usually and is celebrated for different reasons in different ways in various parts of the Indian subcontinent and other parts of the world. The main spirit of the festival is to inculcate feelings of unity and a shared bond amongst each other, ultimately leading to joy and happiness.

The assembly plan also comprises of a drama ‘With a sprinkle of nine hues' which covers the nine different colors linked with each day and designated to each goddess in these nine days. They are royal blue, yellow, white, red, green, grey, orange, sky blue and pink. The essential elements of this assembly are the authenticity and enthusiasm with which the festival is celebrated. It in a way acts as a reflection of the spirit of the festival. The plan comprises of the main manual with a description of the flow of events and further detailed description of all the activities as well. Since a projector facility may not be available in all school grounds, PPTs are not taken and the plan is available only in soft copy format.

The Need for Event and Celebration Plans in Schools

Celebrating a variety of festivals from all around the world, blissfully is an integral part of learning and building a strong societal belief in students studying in schools across the globe. It provides children with an enriching experience of cultural and geographical diversity.

Each festival encourages them to embrace a new cultural identity and enjoy distinct backgrounds, values, and heritage.

The schools focus on celebrating not only the festivals but also national days like Republic Day and Independence Day as well as special days of the year such as International Yoga Day, World Water Day, etc. This practice assists schools to instill ethical, virtuous, and conscientious perspective in students.

Structured celebration plans come to the school’s aid when thinking about the concept of integrated progress of the students.

Factors to be considered while deciding on celebration ideas

‘Celebration ideas For school’ serve as a practical approach for facilitating the involvement of students in an extensive education setting. But before moving on to the ideas, it is important to reflect upon the different factors which affect the framing of these ideas.

·         It aims to focus on a definite topic.

·         The duration varies accordingly. Usually, it takes place for 1-2 hours.

·         The plans or ideas are keeping the venue in mind.

·         The school management takes the responsibility of assigning roles in different cultural activities to the students.

Celebration plans can be executed for selected grades or the entire school, depending on the school's decision.

The Major component of the plan

After carefully considering all the factors for the event, it is important to contemplate the major component of the plan or idea. The plan consists of a principle document explaining the course of the event and highlighting the details of various performances, skits, or activities.

The plan also enlists the essential pre-requisites for the event.

Conceptualizing Ideas for the Event

Every year, a wide variety of ‘school celebration days’ are organized, so it is essential to come up with innovative ideas according to the theme.

Few examples for the same are: -

·         Independence Day- 15^th August

Independence Day is celebrated to honor the life struggles and sacrifices of various freedom fighters, who laid down their lives on the line. It is important for the students to realize the significance of this day as well as change their perspective of viewing this day as an additional day off from the school.

To evoke a sense of pride and patriotism among the students, the theme of the event is generally based on the lives of the freedom fighters, soldiers, or martyrs.

It is important for students to understand the value that this day holds, and which paved the way for a new chapter in the history of freedom, nationalism, and patriotism.

This can be achieved by including different activities in the event schedule. The event duration in the celebration plan is usually around 90 mins.

The main document illustrating the flow of the event generally includes: -

·         Flag hoisting, an essential part of Independence Day celebrations.

·         Plays and skits are organized about the freedom fighters and their struggles as well as soldiers and wars.

·         Compere’s speech which reflects upon the significance of the day.

·         Dance performances depicting dance forms of various Indian states.

·         Music choir sings patriotic songs to honor the soldiers and martyrs.

The duration of the program can be adjusted by addition and removal of the songs, although more songs and dance performances are considered impactful for an ideal Independence Day event.

·         Christmas- 25^th December

Christmas celebrations are organized in schools every year on 25^th December. This festival marks the belief that God came into this world in the form of a man to pay for the sins of humanity.

It is in honor of the birth of Lord Jesus Christ that people from different cultures all over the world celebrate this festival.

Schools aim to inculcate the moral values of love and condescension of God in their students by celebrating this event. The Christmas spirit is universal in nature as various schools across 160 countries celebrate Christmas with the utmost cheerfulness.

The initial step for event plan or idea is coming up with a theme like-’Christmas-It's all about giving.’

The event is usually for 90 mins, and ideally, all students should participate in the event. The main highlights of the event plan are: -

·         The students sing melodious carols and dance beautifully, wishing their teachers and fellow classmates.

·         The entire venue is decorated with red and white colors, according to the theme.

·         People exchange gifts with each other.

The boundless joy of celebrating this merry festival is visible on the faces of all the students.