1. Indian Festivals There are lots and lots of them This means lots of school holidays I will show you two of the main festivals, Deepawali and Holi Deepawali is celebrated in the Fall Holi is celebrated in the Spring Both were celebrated in ancient India to give thanks for the harvest These festivals are also connected with Hindu religion. There are lots of different stories linked to both festival

2. Holi It is the festival to welcome spring It is on the day of the Full Moon On Holi day we play with colors. We prepare buckets and barrels of colored water, water balloons, and “pichkari” – a special water gun for Holi. When friends and family come, we spray colors on them or dunk them in buckets of color.

3. Holi in March 2006 at my cousin’s place in India when I was visiting my grandparents

4. After the Holi Colors – we are ready for some good Indian food and sweets

5. Holi Celebration in the evening, you get dressed up to welcome a lot of visitors to your house and offer them sweets

6. Deepawali or Diwali The Indian New Year festival is called Diwali. It is on the day of New Moon. All houses and streets are decorated with thousands of lights There are lots of fireworks in every house to celebrate it. Diwali is a religious festival which celebrates the victory of good over evil. People believe that the burning lights burn the evil. They also believe that the thousands of lamps show “Lakshmi” the goddess of wealth the way to their homes, so that she can visit them and give them lots of money.