Ava Gorauskas

Festivals of the World: India

by Falaq Kagda
A book report by Ava Gorauskas

Introduction:

This book is about a bunch of festivals in India.

There are a lot of festivals in India and my favorite ones to read about were a two day festival about dance, a festival called “Divali”, and a festival called “Holi”.

  1. Two traditional dances are called Baharat Nhatyam and Kathak.

    2. Baharat Nhatyam dance



    Kathak Dance



  2. During Divali, people get new clothes and clean and/or paint their houses. During Divali people light candles to remind each other that goodness has more power than the forces of darkness.

  3. During Holi, people throw colored powder at each other to remember a story about when Krishna stole milk from the milkmaids and they got back at him by throwing colored powder on him. Everyone changes into clean clothes and then has a party.

    4. holi festival



At the end of the book, it tells you about things that you can do. For instance, a game called Pachisi, how to make a Divali lamp, and how to make a food called Burfi.

Recommendation

I liked this book because it was non-fiction and about India.

I am interested in India because my dad has been to India for work and he brought me stuff back so it must have been fun. He brought me a pearl necklace and a blue Punjabi suit. Punjab is a state in the North of India that borders Pakistan.

I found a picture of a girl tying rakhi to her baby brother on page 25 and she is wearing a Punjabi suit.

I recommend this book to third and fourth graders who like other cultures. When I read the book it made me want to go to India even more because I want to be there for one of the festivals that was described in this book. Starting on page 16, the book talks about the festival of Holi. I would like to see this because when people throw colored powders at me I’ll get to get messy, which I don’t get to do very often.