HINDU SWAYAMSEVAK SANGH

invites you to please come and
join us to celebrate our culture and
heritage on the occasion of


MAKAR SANKRANTI


on Sunday January 31st, 2010
at 25 Brown Ave, Iselin, NJ
from 5.00 PM to 7.00 PM
(Bhojan/Prasad Served)



Activities for the evening include:

Arts n Crafts
Kite making for Kids
Rangoli Pradarshan
Chitra Pradarshan by Kids
One minute speech by Kids on Sankranti Utsav
Yoga
Suryanamaskar

Read how we celebrated the Utsav.

It was a very good experience for the kids to make the kite” , “ We liked the Rangolis and Chitra Pradarshan”, “we liked these handmade Shloka bookmarks” , These were the comments from the families after the Makara Sankranti Utsav of Bhakti Shakha, Iselin NJ held on Sunday , January 31st 2010. The planning for the Utsav started one month before and all the shakha sevaks , sevikas , balas were thinking and preparing creatively their designated role for the Utsav. The highlights for the Utsav were Rangoli Pradarshan by Sevikas, Chitra Pradarshan by Balas, Kite making Activity for everyone, one minute speech on Sankranti celebration in every state of India by Balas.

Everyone reached 15 minutes before to the place and started setting up the things. We made the charts for showing Sankranti wishes in 5 regional languages of Bharat including, Marathi , Hindi, Gujrati, Tamil and Telugu . Near to those charts we set up our Rangoli Pradarshan by Sevikas. We had 7 types of Rangoli including Rangoli on water showing kite flying , Flower rangoli, traditional rangoli, Samskar Bharati Rangoli , Rangoli decorating our Bhojan pan ( Dinner plate) – Mahirap , Rangoli decorating for Samai or Diya and Rangoli with Lentils i.e all Dals. It was really very good and creative pradarshan .

Another table, we set up Chitra Pradarshan by Balas. They drew Kite flying in Summer, Sankranti sweets and celebration, etc. We will upload it for the Balagokulam Magazine quarterly entry from our shakha.

Utsav started with the regular acharpaddhati. We played Dhwajaropanam on Vamshi. In Shakha we have just started teaching Bala Ghosh Vamshi to the kids. So it was a motivation for them to learn and play for the next Utsav. Then we did one set of Suryanamaskar with video on background followed by distribution of appreciation certificates of participating in Surya Namaskar Yajna 2010 to all the Balas and Shishus. All of them were really excited to have this and it motivated them to continue suryanamaskars daily.

After that, it was a time for Khel. Balas and Shishus played very enthusiastically. Then came the long awaited activity of Kite Making. Everyone was given all the material for it like Square of big and small tissue papers , bamboo arch and stick and as per instructions they were pasting those arch and bamboo stick on it. All the kids along with their parents enjoyed this activity. After that we had One minute speech on how Sankranti is celebrated in various parts of Bharat by Balas. Our shakhas stared this in the Gurudakshina Utsav and kids liked it so continued for this Utsav and saw the improving performance. Other shakhas in a Vibhag also started the same activity as they also liked it.

Then we had an inspirational Sanghik Geet “ Mantra Chota Reet Nayi” , Subhashitam, Amrutvachan and Vaiyaktik Geet everything done by Balas very nicely as they were practicing for it for the last few days.

Then we had our Boudhik by our NJ Vibhag Sah- Karyavah Shekhar ji on Sankranti. He emphasized the significance of it in various parts of Bharat and also in Sangh.

After that we had Prarthana followed by Bhojan Mantra. Everyone enjoyed the delicious food made by all the sevikas. All Balas were given preference for food and they enjoyed food by sitting in a one big mandal.

To all sevikas who attended the Utsav while leaving we did traditional haldi Kumkum and giving homemade Tilgul . We also gave as a token of Sankranti like we do it back in Bharat , a bookmark made by sevikas and Balas having different shlokas written on it so the habit of reading and remembering of shloka is served in one thing.

20 kids and 21 Tarun attended the Utsav. It was a really very good experience for everyone meeting new people and families and enjoying in each other’s company as well as working together for the Utsav.