Honour history, respect differences to coexist

I recently overheard a fascinating conversation between my daughter and her delightful, Caucasian friend. They were talking about how their celebratory days conflicted with one another. "When we mourn Jesus over Easter, you celebrate with Khalsa Day (Baisakhi). The joyful Christmas days are also the days when you commemorate the martyrdom of your Guru's sons. And on our Halloween, when everything is dark and spooky, you celebrate Diwali, the festival of lights and joy!" remarked Chelsea.

- Seerat Sandhu

Seerat Sandhu recently overheard a fascinating conversation between my daughter and her delightful, Caucasian friend. They were talking about how their celebratory days conflicted with one another. "When we mourn Jesus over Easter, you celebrate with Khalsa Day (Baisakhi). The joyful Christmas days are also the days when you commemorate the martyrdom of your Guru's sons. And on our Halloween, when everything is dark and spooky, you celebrate Diwali, the festival of lights and joy!" remarked Chelsea.

My daughter giggled at the parallels. They were not untrue. They highlighted the beautiful complexity of cultural differences in their friendship. She asked me, "Which one of us is celebrating it wrong, mama?" "Neither," I said instinctively, "There are so many parallel stories in the world which continue to happen at different points in history. Our job is to honour the history we know and respect the differences."