Faith Features

Diwali, the Hindu Festival of Lights, marks the triumph of light over darkness and good over evil. And to celebrate this year, community artist Joanna Scott ran a lantern making workshop at St Albans Town Hall.

Joanna with finished lanterns

The festival is a time for thoroughly spring-cleaning the home, for wearing new clothes and most importantly, decorating houses, shops, and public places with rows of lights.

So, it was with this in mind that, together with copious amounts of wire, tissue paper, pva glue and fun glow lights, youngsters in St Albans gathered to make their own lanterns to hang in windows at this time of year.

“Diwali means ‘row of lights’” explained Joanna, “so we are creating some little star lanterns on sticks so that we can stand in a row at the end and invite the goddess Lakshmi in for good fortune and prosperity.

Alistair concentrates on his lantern

“It’s quite a positive thing for this time of year as well with Halloween and stuff” she continued.

“I love Halloween but sometimes it scares people! People can sometimes get a little nervous about it with people coming round trick or treating so it’s nice to think about another faith that has something positive at this time of year that we can get involved in as well.

“And they do look so pretty at the end” she added, “and you’ve made it yourself and that’s the genius thing about it. You’ve got something precious that you’ve made yourself.”

Henry with his star frame

Chris Barber had brought her son Alistair to the workshop as a half-term activity for him and also so that she could learn the craft herself. But she also thought that it was important that he learned about other faiths and cultures.

“I do think it’s important” she said, “the school is very good about teaching them about different faiths and different beliefs and I thought that this would be a good thing to do. It would be lovely to go to the different countries, but we can’t do that so we’ve come here instead!”