Festivals and Our Unique Celebrations
Guru Pournima
Stories related to Guru Shishya Parampara are narrated to our children. Our children offer fragrant flowers to their teachers and spend time with them.
Matrudin
Matrudin is a special day in September to commemorate femininity, mothers, and motherhood. It is celebrated in the month of Shravan on the day of Pithori Amavasya. As a mark of respect to all beloved mothers, every child writes letters or authors cards addressed to their own mothers. They bow down to take their blessings, and share nankatai, a sucrerie with their mothers.
Grandparents Day
Grandparents’ day is celebrated to acknowledge the contribution of all grandparents’ in the nurturing of their grandchildren, and this day coincides with the school’s celebration of Janmashtami. It is indeed a proud moment for the grandparents to see their loved ones dressed up as Radha and Krishna dancing in merriment and breaking the traditional Dahi Handi. The grandparents take this opportunity to express their bond with the children and their memories from school.
Navratri
Navratri as the name suggests is a festival celebrated for nine days. The third day of Navratri marks the day when teachers share with the children the secrets of seed sowing and tree planting. Our children bring wheat, cereals, coriander or mustards seed to school in potted plants on the day of Dassera to complete the planting and nurturing cycle.
Dassera
Dassera is celebrated with a lot of fanfare and festivity in the school. They bring along with them beautifully decorated potted plants. The classrooms are decorated with flowers and festoons. The children along with their respective teachers perform pooja of Goddess Saraswati. On this day, the School welcomes all the alumni of bygone years, who visit their teachers and take their blessings.
Lighting of Lamps
The festival of lights (Diwali) is celebrated with a lot of fanfare and fervour in school. The children decorate and paint earthen lamps given to them by the school. The school is beautifully decorated with lanterns, diyas and colourful rangoli. The School invites all children to visit along with their families to light a diya in School foyer.
Baldin
Baldin is a uniquely celebrated festivity, in Balmohan as the universal birthday of all the children in the school, a tradition for the last 80 years. At Balmohan, birthdays of children are not conventionally celebrated with distribution of sweets. An entertainment programme is arranged for the children and all the children are gifted a story book. The entire school is decorated with kites and festoons.
Annaleela
Annaleela is the community lunch programme, where the children help in kitchen tasks such as shelling peas, and peeling potatoes. These are used in preparing meals the next day which are served in a traditional way amidst the soothing music of shehnai, beautiful rangolis and fragrance of incense sticks. This activity gives them a joy of eating together the food that they have helped in making. Children are taught that service is a joy, and all the children together peel, grate, and make a meal.
On My Own Camp [O.M.O]
Education and learning takes place inside as well as outside the confines of a School. On My Own is a Residential Activity Camp in which children of Standard II spend one night in the school. The primary objective is to make the children self-reliant and accommodating. Activities are conducted in order to overcome the fear of darkness, promote teamwork, and a competitive zeal.
Rakshabandhan
‘Rakhi’ or ‘Raksha’ is a sacred thread that signifies sister’s love or affection for her brother. On the day of Rakshabandhan all the children make rakhis in school and tie them to their classmates.
Since last three years our children have made rakhis and cards for our soldiers as part of Initiative Dhaga Shaurya Ka, Rakhi Abhimaan Ki in collaboration with Zee 24 Taas.
Personal Bonding
Every change of season has offerings of traditional sweet or fruit like Ambe Dal, Til Ladoo, Watermelon, for the children. In fact it is no surprise that, even years later children cherish such simple, fond memories that build a familial bonding.
Guru Devo Bhava
On the occasion of Teachers’ Day, we conduct different programmes for our Teachers. Such programmes included a sensitization programme about Organ Donation, which struck a chord with us, with many of us pledging our organs. The senior students played the role of mentors and teachers for the junior students in the school, a tradition which has evolved recently in 2019.
