One of the best celebrations I look forward to every year is Onam. Onam is a festival of my home town in India.It is in memory of a king who ruled. We believe he comes once every year to see his people. The night before the celebration, some people go to the hall we are using and set it up. They move benches for people to sit on, get a banner for the stage, get tables ready and they blow up loads of balloons for decoration. The prettiest part  is they draw a circle (not too big) and draw patterns with chalk. The circle is filled with colourful flower petals. On the day we all wear traditional clothes.The girls wear sarees, churidars, long dresses or skirt and blouse and the boys wear shirts and mundu or pants. Everyone heads to the hall . After everyone is settled, we wait for dancing. A few weeks before Onam, the people who who want to dance gather at someone's house a learn a routine to Indian music. There's around four age categories: the small kids around 4-6, a bit older 7-12,  there's teens and if the older teens want they can join an adult group. After singing and dancing, we have food. We have vegetarian food. Not everything has to have vegetables but nothing can have meat. Close to the end we play  some games like musical chairs, egg and spoon race, bite the biscuit, tug a war and a balloon game where we tie a string to our ankle with a balloon at the other end and we have to pop other people's balloons by stepping on the balloon without popping our own or stepping outside the circle! I was the champion last time. It is great fun. Tug of war is also lots of fun but the boys have an advantage because they wear proper shoes with grips and have loads of leg room while the girls wear flats and long dresses. Still it is great fun. Finally, everyone gets their belongings and the people who organised it say an ending speech. Everyone helps clean up and we go home feeling very happy.
                                                                                            Anjali, Rang 6

My aunt got married in the December holidays in the year 2018 and my whole family and I attended the function. I was dressed in a long, red dress which was embroidered in beautiful beads. The wedding was held in a gigantic hall near her hometown. The tables were laid and decorated with a vase of roses. In a part of Pakistani tradition for weddings, the fiance has to travel to the bride which meant we had to wait a while for him to arrive. After about half an hour of waiting, he finally arrived with family and friends. The fiance and the bride sat down on a beautiful stage adorned with flowers of all colours such as pink, red, orange and yellow and so the festivities began. My dad was the first one to dance and then everyone else joined in. The music was booming and people were giving money to the dances they enjoyed. Luckily for me I got the most! After an hour of dancing, the food was ready. There were kebabs, rice, bread, chicken, fish, ice-cream and more. The room was full of the delicious smell of food. When all the food was finished, everything became more peaceful and it was time for guests to take pictures with the couple and feed them a traditional sweet called 'Ludo'. By the time everyone was finished feeding the couple and taking pictures, we were all tired. Finally came the emotional part of the wedding, when the bride says goodbye to her family. Everyone started crying their eyes out, especially my family because this was the last wedding we would be attending. My aunt got into her husband's car and left. We just stood there, watching and crying. After that, we headed home. I enjoyed the wedding very much and it is a memory I will always treasure.
                                                                                     Eshaal, Rang 6