Himalayan Culture Day

Himalayan Culture Day 

 

On Friday 7th June, the Key Stage 2 children from Branscombe met with their friends from Broadhembury and Farway at Farway C of E school, for a special day of learning about the culture and religion of people living in the Himalayas. In the morning a visitor, Ravi Nathwani, came to share with the children aspects of his own Hindu heritage and culture. The children had a chance to dress up in the sorts of clothes that children in that region might wear for special occasions and festivals and they practised a special celebratory dance. They also learnt about some of the stories behind the festivals and how these are reflected in the way that they are celebrated. Ravi showed the children some Rangoli patterns of the sort that might be made at the festival of lights, Diwali. He was impressed with all that the children were able to share from their own learning in RE. 

 

In the afternoon, Miss Moss shared with the children about life in the Himalayan kingdom in Nepal. The children completed and marked a multiple choice quiz about the country and then split into five groups to learn more about the food, transport, clothes, homes and language. They compared these aspects of life with life in the UK, using a range of photographs, books and artefacts. Many of the children had the chance to taste ‘daal bhat’ (rice, lentils and vegetable curry) of the sort that Nepali people would eat twice a day and also to try Nepali chiya (tea). Other children had the chance to learn a few words in the Nepali language and see what their own names looked like when written in the Devengari script used to record languages such as Nepali and Hindi. At the end of the afternoon, the groups came back together to share what they had learned. 

 

The day formed part of the children’s Geography learning in their ‘Mountains, Rivers and Coasts’ topic but also achieved some of the aims of the Christian Aid Global Neighbours initiative by helping the children learn more about the lives and cultures of people in places around the world.