Asia Society Recommends: Activities for the Whole Family
Crafts, coloring, songs, and more
While COVID-19 has necessitated social distancing and the cancelation of many gatherings — including our own beloved Nowruz Family Day — we hope that these activities and videos can bring joy and learning into your household of all ages.
Nowruz, the Persian new year, marks the beginning of spring. Celebrated on the vernal equinox, Nowruz traditions include cleaning the house (doable), setting the haftseen table (possible), and visiting friends and family (only virtually!) In order for you to celebrate the spirit of Nowruz from home, here are some videos and actives from Pardis for Children, our longtime partners for Nowruz Family Day. We hope to see you back in 1400 (2021)!
A Nowruz tune!
A beautiful haftseen table setting video by Niloufar.
An adorable stop motion animation wishing everyone a joyous —and slightly belated — Nowruz!
Want to set your own haftseen? Here's an illustrated guide to the items and significance of each element.
For even more craft ideas, cooking videos, songs, and greetings, visit Pardis for Children's Nowruz 2020 page.
Holi is the Hindu spring festival. It signifies the victory of good over evil, the arrival of spring, and the end of winter. Lasting for a night and a day, the evening before Holi is reserved for religious rituals and prayers to drive away evil. On the morning of Holi, celebrants joyfully smear color and splash water on each other.
Sing along with Falu, a Grammy-nominated artist internationally recognized for her ability to blend a modern inventive style with impressive, classically trained Indian vocal talent.
Make a Holi greeting card using a coloring "throwing" technique.
Materials:
Card paper, card stock, or construction paper
Straw
Watercolor paints, ink, or water dyed with a bit of food coloring
Instructions:
Prepare your watercolors or colored water. Take the straw and blow the water onto the paper, just like how you would throw colors during Holi. Since you can cut it out and stick it on a piece of card stock or larger piece of paper, you don’t need to worry about keeping it neat. Cut a little circle and write “Holi Hai” and stick it in the middle of the card.
Do a word search! Can you find all of the following words? Holi, Bindu, Shape, India, Henna, Artist, Temple, Dance.
Finally, we leave you with a moment of beauty and contemplation from the Asia Society Museum. We hope that you and your loved ones are safe and we thank you for your continued support. While our time out of doors and with family may be limited, we hope that our work continues to bring some small measure of joy, of escape, of relief.
