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Celebrating Diwali: “It doesn’t matter what background you are.”

| Categories: Curriculum & Learning, Our People

If you visited Sexsmith Elementary last Tuesday, you would have felt the musical vibrations and heard loud cheering from students, staff and families in the school gym for their annual Diwali celebration.

At Sexsmith, Diwali is not just any event; it’s a special celebration that brings the entire school community together. In fact, celebrating Diwali is a long-held Sexsmith tradition that has taken place every year for the last 16 years! 

This annual school event showcases traditional dance performances by talented students in Grades 1 through 7. This year, the crowd saw 10 group and solo student performances in addition to a special performance by staff as the grand finale.  

This year Grade 7 students and the event MCs, Pavel Dhillon and Kobe Faridkot, energized the crowd between performances with fun facts about Diwali festivities and traditions. 

“Diwali really brings everyone together,” Pavel and Kobe share. “It doesn’t matter what background you are,” Kobe adds. “Even if you don’t participate in the celebration, it’s a really great learning experience for everyone.”

The warmth from the community radiates throughout the school. Some say Diwali at Sexsmith feels like a family tradition. As traditions go, long-time community members re-engage with current students, their families and staff, including former PAC member Kavita. Even two years after her own child left Sexsmith to attend secondary school at Churchill Secondary, Kavita continues to help with the annual event.  

“Diwali at Sexsmith is such a family-oriented event where the entire community comes together,” Kavita shares. “Diwali is all about sending love out to the community.”  

Event organizer and multicultural liaison worker Vandana Nagpal has worked at Sexsmith since 2004 and says the community at Sexsmith is what makes the event possible, and that it is important to remember the true meaning of celebrating Diwali.

“The most important thing about this event, that I tell students, is about finding their inner light and spreading their light around to others,” says Nagpal. 

Diwali, the Festival of Lights, is a Hindu religious festival and one of the most important festivals within Hinduism. It generally lasts five days and is celebrated during the Hindu lunisolar months of Ashwayuja and Kartika.

To the entire Sexsmith school community and all those celebrating Diwali, the VSB wishes that the festival of lights brightens each and every day of your lives! Happy Diwali!

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