Dubai abounds with international schools offering all kinds of curriculums, and, almost all of the schools are a wonderful amalgamation of cultures, nationalities, languages and attitudes!
However, despite the international tag, by and large, I have found that most celebrations / occassions in schools tend to be centred around Halloween, Christmas, maybe an odd international food day and of course in the UAE, the UAE national day! You don't really get to see a Korean festival, or the Chinese New Year or a Bangladeshi Durga puja etc being celebrated in any school - my 10 yr old has now been to 3 international schools and I haven't seen much of this anywhere! Its not really specific to Dubai.
Of course Halloween has universal appeal that is divorced from any religious / festival / faith considerations so I guess that's something that everyone looks forward to! But I for one, would love to attend a celebration for say a Chinese New Year - that's the entire point of being a nomad and living overseas, isn't it? An exposure to different people and cultures?
So I was very pleasanty surprised when my cousins invited us to a Diwali celebration at their kids school! It's a relatively new international school in Jumeirah with a cross section of nationalities and the Indian parents had decided to host a Diwali evening to aquaint people with Diwali!
It wasn't that the evening was organised on a grand lavish scale, I think it was the parents and children who made it so wonderful! They had a couple of food stalls selling some Indian snacks for which coupons had been pre-sold and/or you could buy coupons on the spot! The parents had carried rugs, and, food, and decided to make it one big picnic in the evening under the stars!
The principal turned out in a traditional Indian outfit - a kurta and pyjama! I must say he looked very comfortable in it! A couple of teachers had made an effort to dress up in traditional Indian clothes and looked really very nice!
The younger (pre-K and K I think) kids, danced to a popular song for the English-Hindi movie Slumdog Millionaire. They were absolutely adorable.
This was followed by a couple of classical Indian dance performances and a small presentation explaining what Diwali was all about! I think what made the evening special was the interest shown by the parents in everything that was happening and of course the picnic like atmosphere! And the kids charged up the atmosphere with matching steps to some peppy Hindi songs!
We were there till late at night, chatting with a lot of people who we met for the first time, who were fascinated by my mother-in-law's saree and asked a lot of questions! And of course,when it comes to India, a huge chunk of conversation always veers around to curries and Goa!
It was a lovely evening, grand, not in the sense of proportions or size, but in terms of participaion enthu and thebonhomie factor! Now, I'd love to attend a Chinese New Year celebration some day!
However, despite the international tag, by and large, I have found that most celebrations / occassions in schools tend to be centred around Halloween, Christmas, maybe an odd international food day and of course in the UAE, the UAE national day! You don't really get to see a Korean festival, or the Chinese New Year or a Bangladeshi Durga puja etc being celebrated in any school - my 10 yr old has now been to 3 international schools and I haven't seen much of this anywhere! Its not really specific to Dubai.
Of course Halloween has universal appeal that is divorced from any religious / festival / faith considerations so I guess that's something that everyone looks forward to! But I for one, would love to attend a celebration for say a Chinese New Year - that's the entire point of being a nomad and living overseas, isn't it? An exposure to different people and cultures?
So I was very pleasanty surprised when my cousins invited us to a Diwali celebration at their kids school! It's a relatively new international school in Jumeirah with a cross section of nationalities and the Indian parents had decided to host a Diwali evening to aquaint people with Diwali!
It wasn't that the evening was organised on a grand lavish scale, I think it was the parents and children who made it so wonderful! They had a couple of food stalls selling some Indian snacks for which coupons had been pre-sold and/or you could buy coupons on the spot! The parents had carried rugs, and, food, and decided to make it one big picnic in the evening under the stars!
The principal turned out in a traditional Indian outfit - a kurta and pyjama! I must say he looked very comfortable in it! A couple of teachers had made an effort to dress up in traditional Indian clothes and looked really very nice!
The younger (pre-K and K I think) kids, danced to a popular song for the English-Hindi movie Slumdog Millionaire. They were absolutely adorable.
This was followed by a couple of classical Indian dance performances and a small presentation explaining what Diwali was all about! I think what made the evening special was the interest shown by the parents in everything that was happening and of course the picnic like atmosphere! And the kids charged up the atmosphere with matching steps to some peppy Hindi songs!
We were there till late at night, chatting with a lot of people who we met for the first time, who were fascinated by my mother-in-law's saree and asked a lot of questions! And of course,when it comes to India, a huge chunk of conversation always veers around to curries and Goa!
It was a lovely evening, grand, not in the sense of proportions or size, but in terms of participaion enthu and thebonhomie factor! Now, I'd love to attend a Chinese New Year celebration some day!
Yes manisha you are absolutely right
ReplyDeletei agree with you we have lots of problems
specially in that occasions.
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