FESTIVALS

BILLABONG HIGH INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL

Do festivals & celebrations in

our families and communities
show respect and tolerance
for various cultures and
religions?

RESEARCH METHODS

Interviewing and asking people to fill out

questionnaires were out 2 main means of gathering
information. We believe that information we collect
online may either be biased or factually incorrect.
This drove us to collect our own information,
interpret it, and form our own unique conclusions
Besides handing out questionnaires, Each member
conducted interviewed of individuals from various
cultures and beliefs. This why we believe our
research is compressive and diverse .

PEOPLE INTERVIEWED

Name

Age

Aditya shankaraman

17

Ranjini Krishnaswamy

72

Aryaman tulpule

16

Andrea Atkins

35

Manisha joshi

44

Anita Ravi

45

Rajashri Rane

37

THESE ARE SOME OF THE STANDOUT

QUESTIONS FROM OUT QUESTIONNAIRE

Which festival do you think is the most

significant?
Which is your favorite festivals?
Which religion do you belong to?

Festival popularity

12%

6%
32%

15%
35%

Diwali
Ganesh chaturti
Christmas
Eid
Navratri

HERES SOME INFORMATION ON

THE FESTIVALS WE
RESEARCHED

NAVRATRI
Navaratriis a festival dedicated to the worship of
theHindudeityDurga. The wordNavaratrimeans 'nine
nights' inSanskrit,navameaning nine
andratrimeaning nights.During these nine nights and
ten days, nine forms ofDeviare worshiped.
The beginning of spring and the beginning of autumn
are considered to be important junctions of climatic and
solar influences. These two periods are taken as sacred
opportunities for the worship of the Divine Mother
Durga. The dates of the festival are determined
according to thelunar calendar. on which each women
follow tradition to wear nine colours of dress on
Navaratri.

 It is since ancient times that Diwali has been celebrated. It is

not easy to say now what really was the reason behind its
origin. Different people believe different events to be the cause
behind this festival. There are ten mythical and historical
reasons that are possibly behind the Diwali (Deepavali)
celebrations.

DIWALI

The most well known story behind Diwali is in the Ramayana,

the great Hindu epic. According to Ramayana, Rama, the
prince of Ayodhya was ordered by his father, King Dasharatha,
to go away from his country and come back after living in the
forest for fourteen years. So Rama went on exile with his
devoted wife Sita and faithful brother, Lakshmana. When
Ravana, the demon king of Lanka abducted Sita and took her
away to his island kingdom of Lanka, Rama fought against and
killed Ravana. He rescued Sita and returned to Ayodhya after
fourteen years. The people of Ayodhya were very happy to
hear of their beloved prince's homecoming. To celebrate
Rama's return to Ayodhya, they lit up their houses with earthen
lamps (diyas), burst crackers and decorated the entire city in
the grandest manner. Which is exactly how diwali is celebrated

EID-UL-FITR
Eid-al-Fitr is also called as the Eid-ul-Fitr, IdulFitr or Ramzan Id which indicates the end of
Ramadan month means the month of fasting.
This is the most religious and holy festival for
the people that belongs to the Muslim religion
during which they break their fast
People celebrate Eid by coming together as a
family and spend time with their loved ones
and praying namaz

CHRISTMAS
Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual
festival commemorating the birth of Jesus
Christ, observed most commonly on
December 25 as a religious and cultural
celebration among billions of people around
the world.
People celebrate Christmas by coming
together as a family and spend time with
their loved ones

So what are the values portrayed in

these festivals?
From the interviews we conducted observed we
noticed a trend. All festivals teach us the value of
togetherness and how important spending time
with loved ones is .Another teaching is how
important the continuation of tradition is.

What do other cultures think of these

celebrations?
In India People of other cultures come together well
during celebrations. For example this year Eid and
Ganesh chaturti overlapped. During the festival,
Hindus paused their celebrations to let 13,000
Muslims pray their namaz

FESTIVAL CELEBRATIONS IS SCHOOLS

In billabong high we celebrate festivals. It helps teach students
values and tradition as well as being fun
For example, This diwali students made rangoli (designs made with
colorful sand)

GRANDPARENTS INTERVIEW
When we interview our grandparents we
asked them one question how has festivals
celebrations changed? heres the
differences they cited
Festivals have become louder (fire crackers)
Celebrations have become grander
People of other religions celebrate too

CONCLUSION
In our research it was obvious that
people are tolerant and respectful
towards other cultures celebrations.
Furthermore, people even celebrated in
festivals that are from other cultures. It
just goes to show how well people get
together in India despite conflict of
interests and idolgies.