The online magazine https://ourchildrenmagazine.ca/ published an article about nourishing traditions in December 2019 where they interviewed Amanda Nahas and Shivani Dhamija to talk about feasts and traditions in different cultures and how traditions are shared and passed down to family.
Excerpt from the article:
Shivani Dhamija of Halifax has two children and runs an Indian catering company and cooking
school. She grew up in India and her family is Hindu. This year they celebrated Diwali, the festival of
lights at the end of October. It honours the return of the deities, Rama and Sita, who were exiled for
14 years until good over evil, or light over darkness, triumphed. The people light up their houses for
Diwali each year to lead them back home.
“For kids, Diwali is always about firecrackers, new clothes, and of course, lots of good food,” she
laughs.
One of the traditions Dhamija’s family follows is becoming strictly vegetarian during Diwali. No meat
is allowed to enter their home and she says some families also ban onions during the festival. “It’s all
good meals though,” she says. “It’s a lot of desserts actually, lots and lots of desserts. It’s just like
Christmas where you give cookies and gifts to your neighbours, it’s very similar to us. We get
dressed up and go to each other’s houses and give desserts to our neighbours to wish them a happy
Diwali.”
Family and friends flow in and out of each other’s homes during the festival and Dhamija says the
belief is that Lord Ganesh and Goddess Lakshmi visit every home as well so it’s important that
someone is always ready to greet visitors with a clean house and plenty of food, especially sweet
desserts.
Link to article: https://ourchildrenmagazine.ca/2019/12/05/nourishing-traditions/
Downloadable article (pdf): Downloadable link to article mentioned above.