On Friday, 7th November, Glasshouse College held its third Lantern Festival, based on the theme of fire. Lanterns decorated the college courtyard and garden areas.
The festival began with a shadow puppet performance and storytelling of the Hindu epic Ramayana, which tells the story of Rama and Sita and their battle to overcome dark forces. This ended in a celebration of light and colour as a symbol of triumph.
The Ramayana is part of our festival cycle within the PSTE curriculum. It is a light festival that brings hope, colour, and light in darker times. The epic tells the story of Rama, the seventh incarnation of the god Vishnu. It follows his marriage to Sita, his exile to the jungle for 14 years, and the loss of Sita when she is kidnapped by the demon Ravana. The story includes Rama’s battles against demons, his defeat of Ravana, and his reunion with Sita before returning to the throne of Ayodhya.
The Ramayana is an archetypal story with many underlying meanings and messages that represent and teach about challenges we all face within our lives, meeting them and overcoming them to allow for a journey of self-transformation.This is a representation of the PSTE craft curriculum with Ruskin Mill Trust. Through creating productions such as the Ramayana, students also overcome barriers to learning through the development of commitment, reliability, timekeeping, taking on direction, self-discipline, independence and building relationships with others through a theatre production company environment.
All students, despite the disciplined process and environment that required patience, repeated practice, and commitment, thoroughly enjoyed the performance. They adapted well to timetable changes and stayed late on Friday evening to share their work with a public audience.
