Kids, in general are very observant and responsive to all that happens around them. Their curiosity and reasoning increase many folds as they grow.
Often, our little one asked us why certain festivals were being celebrated? Thankfully his school gives him insight on how and why a certain festival is being celebrated in India. He often asked us about certain rituals being practiced and the purpose behind them.
I studied in a convent school run by missionary sisters and as much as I loved going to the church to light a candle, I religiously observed the month of Ramadan too.
There were a few incidents where we told him how every one practices different rituals and we may or may not be able to observe all of them. He still wasn’t satisfied with the answers!
Religion is a sensitive topic. While we may want our children to observe different rituals, we also want them to respect all faiths. One day during the festive period of Lord Ganesha’s arrival and departure, he wanted to get the idol home. Considering there is a certain ritual attached to it and its not something we may be able to do justice to, we politely declined his request.
The thought of introducing religion and why some people have different faith kept hovering in my mind all throughout.
One day after we picked him up from school, he said, “Dadda, Mumma, no one in my school prays namaz, they don’t know what namaz is? To this, his dad replied, “son just like there are so many people across the world, who like different football teams and we can’t force them to have the same favorite team as yours, similarly people have different ways to express their respect and love to God”.Ultimately its about just one guiding force that binds us all!!
He loves football and everything associated with it. We were glad how we could connect something as simple as sports to something as complicated as religion and beautify the answer altogether.
I was amazed at an answer that came so easily from his dad. Z boy looked satisfied with the answer. He then said, “I like so many football teams and I have so many jerseys too”. Can I like different gods then? We unanimously said. “Yes”. We then told him it’s important for him to be a good person first, because that’s what God wants us to be.
He created the world as equal. Each of us was assigned a task (at least that’s what I believe) Our skin color varies on our genes, the climate we live in, etc etc. Our nationalities and religions are all man made and so are most of our troubles. The man-made troubles for which we need the almighty’s intervention!!
A really nice video I came across that is an introduction to how different is beautiful and how diversity is great 🙂
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