Critical Reflection – Diwali 

Áine Birch G00383242
 
At the beginning of the year, my course (Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Education (Design,
Graphics, and Construction)) was given an assignment to complete, the aim of the
assignment was to host an event to celebrate and promote interculturalism in ATU (Atlantic
Technological University). The way in which we decided to do this was by hosting a
lunchtime event to celebrate Diwali, the event took place on the 26th of October 2022.
‘Diwali, also spelled Divali, is one of the major religious festivals in Hinduism, Jainism, and
Sikhism. The name is derived from the Sanskrit term dipavali, meaning “row of lights.” The
festival generally symbolizes the victory of light over darkness’ (Britannica, 2022). Myself
and my classmates organised this event with the help of Dr. Pauline Logue and Surbhi
Gautam. Our class was divided into five different groups, each group had a specific role to
play, the groups were; research group, venue planners, hospitality group, Indian society
group and film group.  
For this assignment I was in the hospitality group, along with two of my classmates, our
roles included meeting everybody at the door and offering them Bindi, assisting with the
serving of food after the event and tidying up after the food was served. Once the doors
were open for anyone to go in to see the event, myself and my two classmates stood at the
door to encourage people to go in, we spoke to a lot of staff and students, everybody we
spoke to had plenty of questions regarding the event and they all showed great interest.  
On reflection, I think completing this assignment and hosting the event was greatly
beneficial as I learned a lot about Indian culture, I also learned a lot about how to organise
an event and I will take this new knowledge with me as I progress in my career. In the future
I would like to host a similar event in a school with my students. It is important for students
and teachers to be made aware of different cultures. Successful educators who work with
pupils that are traditionally underserved and disenfranchised share a certain trait. They are
aware of and respectful of the diverse cultural backgrounds of their pupils, they know how
to capitalize on the strengths that these backgrounds bring to the classroom and are adept
at finding solutions to issues that prevent effective instruction (Hood, 2015). There are many
ways to include cultural diversity into lessons, including design and research projects of
different cultures but I think it is just as important to have intercultural events throughout
the whole school body so that more people can get involved. 
I think our event was a great success, a lot of students and staff attended, and everybody
seemed to really enjoy it, I for one, was pleasantly surprised by the amount of people that
used their lunch time to attend our event. I now feel that I would be very confident in
planning and organising a similar intercultural event in a school in the future.  
Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopaedia (2022, August 24). Diwali. Encyclopedia Britannica.
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Diwali-Hindu-festival 

Hood, S. (2015). Teaching culturally diverse children is a challenge for Irish schools. The Irish
Times.