Last week, pupils from all year groups at Loughborough High School took part in our annual Diwali Assembly – a much-anticipated event in the School calendar.
Organised by Inclusion and Diversity Prefect, Harvinder, Year 13, the assembly featured dance performances from pupils as well as readings from a range of Diwali stories.
We caught up with Harvinder to find out about all the preparation, hard work and dedication that went into making the assembly an incredible celebration of culture.
Please could you give us insight into the ‘behind the scenes’ preparation that took place in the lead up to the assembly?
I began preparations for the assembly towards the end of September and there was great interest from all year groups to join in! We had a few different groups from each year wanting to dance, so they choreographed their dances individually, and the Year 13s choreographed their dances in groups too. I scheduled rehearsals fairly often, more so in the last couple of weeks in which we were all rehearsing nearly every day in the hall and dance studio.
For readings, Meghna and I collaborated in creating a script that would include all the three religions that celebrate on the day of Diwali: Hinduism with Diwali, Sikhism with Bandi Chorr Divas, and Jainism with Dipalikaya. This was really important to me, as I hadn’t known that Jains also celebrate Dipalikaya and thought that anyone who celebrated in school would appreciate their representation in the assembly. I’d also had feedback from people in school who said that they didn’t know much about Diwali except for the Hindu story of Rama and Sita, and that the first time they’d learnt about Sikhism was in the Guru Nanak’s Gurpurab assembly last year, which was why I wanted to focus on sharing all the different stories and celebrations that happen.
For decorations, Diya and I already had some nice pieces from home which we brought in, and luckily the flower garlands we brought matched exactly in colour so it turned out well! I think the main idea with decor was to make everything as bright and fun as possible, as that’s what people usually remember the assembly as being! Mr Broughton helped out with the lighting and navigating the new system. He managed to create a flickering effect with orange lights, which I felt was a nice touch to mimic the candle lights in diyas. We also got to use the new sound system for the first time in the assembly which was exciting to try out.
What were the main aims of the assembly?
The Diwali assembly has always been such a big event and I’ll always remember participating in it when I was in the younger year groups at School. I think I wanted to help share that feeling and make sure that the lower years enjoy it as much as I did so that these memories of dancing with friends and having fun will stay with them.
Sharing Indian culture with people who don’t celebrate Diwali at home was also something I wanted to do; I think it was lovely that people got an insight into what makes Diwali so important and fun for so many people. It is also the Y13s’ last Diwali assembly, so I wanted to make this one memorable for us too!
You should be really proud of pulling together such a fantastic event, how did you find the experience?
I think the Diwali assembly went really well this year, and I think that’s down to the enthusiasm of all the people who participated. Everyone was really excited and looked amazing in their outfits; they should be so proud of all their performances! It was also so much fun to dance with my friends and share the different stories that people remember at Diwali; I’m glad we got to include stories from different religions in the assembly. A big thank you to Diya, Keira and Meghna for all the help, hard work and support they put into making this Diwali assembly happen!
