Celebrating the Festivals of Home with Our Expat Kids

“It is the festive season in my home country. Ah the whole town will be lit up! There will be greetings, cheer, dancing and delicacies! Oh, how much I miss being there now!”

This is a thought every expat lives with around the festive times in one’s home country. Most of us are trying to settle in a new country, learn the language, make friends, and integrate in our new home. The festivals we grew up celebrating bring beautiful memories when we are away.

Eight years ago, when I moved to Europe from India, my husband and I had our first Diwali as a married couple. Had we been in India then, it would have been a very special occasion for the entire family. However, it was the first time I was away from my country. I knew no Indians other than my husband. To us it made no sense to celebrate it in our new home. So we celebrated this Indian festival of lights in the City of Lights – Paris. We enjoyed exploring the city and spent the evening of Diwali watching the light show on the Eiffel tower.

The following year, however, I had made enough Indian friends to participate in get-togethers and festive meet-ups. We celebrated Indian festivals together, dancing and cheering and recreating the festive mood that gave us a sense of being close to home. Over the years I began celebrating all the festivals. But still there was a sense of emptiness, because you wouldn’t feel the mood unless you met an Indian friend that day. Festivals over the years meant dressing up, a visit to the temple, sharing celebration pictures and selfies over Facebook and Whatsapp, and going to an Indian restaurant with friends.

It was only when I had my first child that I began to wonder how she would relate to an Indian festival. As a child, I also moved every few years to a new city within India. And that only helped me to understand my country better. But it is different moving within your country and moving to a new country altogether. I knew what I was missing when I moved with my husband, but my children do not know what they are missing. Born and raised in a new land, my expat kids relate more to the festivals and celebrations of our adopted country.

After our second was born, we took both our girls back to India for our first Diwali celebration as a family. They were aged three and one then. I made my first Rangoli (a colourful pattern made with rice flour, flowers and lamps) with my family after six years! It’s still difficult to express my joy in words. (You can see the Rangoli in the photo above.)

We did take them to India for a few more festivals, but it goes without saying that we cannot do this every year. Holidays now mean a trip to India only during the yearly long break. How then should I introduce Indian culture and festive roots to my kids? Here are some of the methods that have worked for us as a family.

Festive crafts

Kids of all ages love crafts and colour. Just as you would do a story craft with your kids, telling them a story and then creating something related to it together, you could do a few celebration crafts and build a story around them. Here are a few examples. Ganesh Chaturthi (the elephant-faced Indian God) has a big celebration in India. A day before the celebration, I read to them and played the video of the Indian mythological story of Lord Ganesha and how he got the elephant face. My girls seemed interested in the story. We then spent rest of the day making our own little clay Ganesha and his companion the “Mooshik,” or the mouse on which he rides to see the whole world.

We did one more on Independence Day. For three- and five-year-olds, freedom and independence are really big words, so we celebrated it as Flag Day. We simply did a drawing and coloured our own little flag!

Navaratri is a nine-day step-like display of dolls festival – they are a mix of gods and crafts. The last two years I have enjoyed this nine-day festival with my kids, making crafts and arranging dolls with them on the display.

And that’s how our Christmas corner in the house looked. We decked it with all the beautiful things the girls made at their playgroups – both English and German!

Dance performances and get together

It is a great idea to take kids to have play dates with kids from your community or to get them together for a performance of a song or a dance from your country.

Food

Before I had kids, I often felt when it came to cooking for special occasions (especially with Indian festivals coming up every second month through the year), that it was a lot to do and I would keep it really simple. But after I had my girls, I realized that unless I cooked they wouldn’t know what made up a special feast for a special day. Just as cakes are for birthdays, now my daughters know that appams (fried sweets made of wheat flour, rice flour and jaggery) and vadais (savory, spicy fried dumplings) are for festive days, though they call them cupcakes and spicy donuts!

Celebrations with kids are always fun. For expat kids, just as they understand and enjoy Swiss festivals and celebrations, it is also possible for them to understand their home country’s food, culture and festivals! We as parents are the ones who must make a start.

Photos and text by Keerthana Nagarajan

Keerthana is a freelance journalist and lives with her husband and two little girls in Zurich. She worked previously in the Netherlands at Radio Netherlands Worldwide, covering South Asia news, and at CNN’s sister concern in India, CNN-IBN. On Women’s Day this year, she launched her own online platform, www.continnect.com, that aims to inform, inspire and involve women from around the world. You can reach Keerthana at nkeerthana@continnect.com