Virtual Diwali Celebration Ideas for Remote Teams

Diwali is just around the corner! Known as the Festival of Lights, during Diwali people will have a feast and spend time with friends and family. Many go shopping to buy new decorations and traditional clothes to wear when visiting their relatives. Unfortunately, just like last year, the situation with COVID-19 prevents us from going out and gathering to celebrate Diwali together. But don’t let the pandemic spoil the festive mood!

If this is your first time holding a virtual “festival” for your remote teams, here is a good place to start. For those who have celebrated Diwali virtually last year, you might want to stay for some new creative ideas so your event will not get boring.

Send customized e-Invites

Source: Pixabay

If you are going to celebrate Diwali, you have to start the right way! Instead of sending out plain invitation cards to your team members, get creative and add some diyas and rangolis designs to your invitation card. It will help you set the tone of your event!

Personalized invitation is also recommended. You can add inside jokes among your teammates or even better: Diwali memes! Aside from that, some information you should include in your invitation card are:

• Time and venue

• Highlights of the event

• Dress code and,

• Other trivials your teammates might need to prepare prior to Diwali

Traditional theme party

Source: Learn Religions

Dressing up once in a while can refresh the atmosphere of your workplace. While wearing traditional clothes and going out is the ultimate experience you want for Diwali, the situation might make it difficult to do just that. So instead, you can resort to having your teammates wear “traditional accessories” or dress according to “Diwali color palette”. 

Since we are doing it virtually, you might as well go all in! You can have a mini-competition for the title “Best Appearance of 2021’s Diwali”. To win this, a person needs to be the most creative with their clothes and have a matching meeting background on top of that. In other words, the sky’s the limit!

Read Also: Gel the Team Together: 5 Tips to Create Collaborative Culture

Virtual rangoli workshop

Source: CollecttivoVV

Rangoli is essential for the Diwali celebration. Rangoli patterns are usually created with powder colours or flowers. Hindus believe rangoli represents happiness and is intended to welcome Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth and good luck. Thus, drawing rangoli with your teammates is also one way to celebrate Diwali.

However, you might want to be careful with this. In an attempt to honor a culture, the lines between appreciating and appropriating can be ambiguous. So, instead of having a full blast event which involves drawing rangoli all you want, it is objectively better to have a workshop because not everyone in your team might be familiar with Diwali. This way, your team can also enrich their knowledge on cultures previously foreign to them.

Celebrating events together is one way to strengthen your remote team! Even when the majority of your workers are not Hindu or Buddhist, it is important to show support for teammates who actually do celebrate Diwali! Anyhow, every effort at inclusivity will result in great retention for any business. Happy Diwali!

Read Also: Tips to Create a Work-Life Balance