The Indian Festival Raksha Bandhan - My Speech

You have heard about Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, But have your heard about Brothers’ and Sisters’ Day?
Well, in India Brothers’ and Sisters’ Day is celebrated in the month of August, Raksha Bandhan is celebrated at full moon in August. For this special day Indian sisters make delicious sweets.
On the day itself, they give the sweets to their brothers and tie colourful bracelets called rakhis around their brothers’ right wrists. The rakhis are meant to make sure that the brothers will be healthy, happy, rich, and successful. In return, the brothers often give presents to their sisters and promise to protect them from danger.
Rakhis are made from colourful cotton or silk threads and are decorated with artificial flowers, shiny beads or tiny pompoms. Each rakhi is different. Some are simple and others are very fancy.
The sisters prepare an Indian sweet called barfi for their brothers the day before the festival.
First they make syrup with sugar and water. Then they add milk powder to the syrup and stir the mixture. Then, melted butter is added and the mixture is cooked for a while. When everything has been stirred together, the mixture is poured into a tray. In the morning the barfi is cut into diamond shapes.
On the day, the barfi, rakhis, and red powder are placed on a tray. Each sister blesses her brother by placing a small red dot in the centre of his forehead. The rakhi is tied to the brother’s right wrist. A slice of barfi is offered to the brother. The sister greets the brother saying “Happy Raksha Bandhan”. The brother then offers a gift to his sister.
In India it is a National holiday and all brothers and sisters unite and celebrate this happy day.
All cultures have special days of celebration, even though they may be different, they are similar in many ways. We can all be united through celebrating with each other. Unity in Diversity I guess!

By Jimmy