RE Festival Workshop- Bodhi Day

Today we considered how we use decorations to mark special occasions. Whilst we acknowledged that we don't always decorate for a festival or event, often some people will. We then explored how Buddhists will use decorations to mark a special festival they have in December. Bodhi Day marks the day that a wealthy prince in India,  Siddhartha Gautama, reached Enlightenment and became the icon we now know as Buddha. 

The traditional way to decorate on Bodhi Day is to put colored lights and strings of beads through the branches of a fig tree to symbolize how we are all united: from the smallest ant to the largest tree. This is a revelation that Siddhartha came to as he reached Enlightenment and passed on in his teachings. 

In acknowledgement of this way of decorating, we made our own string of beads that we can  string through the branches of a tree, maybe even a Christmas tree. However, much to everyone's excitement we used edible ingredients as beads, so I wonder how many will survive the long enough to decorate a tree.