Celebrating from a distance
Blog by Helen Willmott, Programme Director, Made With Many
19th November 2020
Every year, the autumn is full of traditions and celebrations where normally people gather together to celebrate and remember. From the fun of trick and treating at Halloween and fireworks on Bonfire Night to the more solemn commemoration of Remembrance Day and the religious celebrations of Diwali and Christmas, it sometimes seems like there’s a special day to be marked every week.
This year, those dates have still been in our diaries, but obviously we’ve had to re-imagine ways to celebrate traditions at a distance. Remembrance Day was marked by numerous, yet significantly smaller than usual, acts across the country. Halloween and Bonfire Night saw families celebrating in their own homes and through online gatherings, rather than joining the wider community. The same is happening for Diwali this month, and we know that Christmas will look very different this year.
If 2020 has shown us anything, it’s that we’re all more creative than we might have thought, and that new ways of celebration are possible. The essence of these traditional events, such as sharing gifts, remembering sacrifices and celebrating light in the darkness, have still been at the forefront of many small celebrations.
In all of these moments, there’s been the opportunity for us all to use our own creativity to help us celebrate and remember. There’s been costume making, cooking, sharing of poetry and music and homemade art yet again appearing in household windows. Here at Made With Many, we’ve been helping where we can, having distributed over 2,000 creative activity packs to households in Corby and Wellingborough over the past few months, including 300 Diwali craft packs in Wellingborough earlier this month.
There will be many more traditions and celebrations ahead, including Christmas and New Year, and however we’re able to celebrate in the future, I think it would be great if we could remember the creativity and innovation that happened in homes this year.
To find creative inspiration and more information about our projects, please explore our website.
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