GIIS Pune celebrates Makar Sankranti to start the year on a note of hope, love and togetherness
Pune : Global Indian International School (GIIS) Pune celebrated Makar Sankranti virtually where students, teachers, and parents came together on an online platform to celebrate the first festival of the year. Over 200 students from both the campuses came together to celebrate the day with great zeal and enthusiasm.
A session was held to commemorate the festival and to enable the children to understand the significance of how and why the festival is celebrated. This allowed them to appreciate the traditions associated with it.
Several interesting activities were organized for GMP students, such as drawing and coloring kites, making sweets, and preparing lip-smacking Til ke Ladoo, as Makar Sankranti celebrations would be incomplete without making and sharing ‘tilgul’, a mixture of jaggery and sesame seeds, with friends and family, as many people in Maharashtra do, to mark the day. The little craftsmen made the luminous kites with some meaningful messages. They also made delicious sesame ladoo to mark the occasion.
Commenting on the celebration, Mr. Rajiv Bansal, Director-Operations, Global Indian International School (GIIS) India said the objective of celebrating these festivals is to promote Indian culture and to educate our students about the significance of each festival celebrated in our country. The Makar Sankranti festival spreads the message to set aside differences and start the new year on a note of hope, love, and togetherness. Through our 9GEMS pedagogy, our emphasis is not just academic excellence, but we also nurture our students emotionally and spiritually. On this festival, we also teach our students to imbibe moral values to build character like politeness, sharing, respect towards elders, and respect for nature.
The festival holds immense astrological and traditional importance. Makar Sankranti is a festival that heralds a change of season marking the movement of the sun into the northern hemisphere – a celebration to mark the end of winter. The sun god is worshipped with sweets and devotion. The first festival of the year announces the onset of spring and the harvest season.