Diwali is the most celebrated festival not just in India but through the world. Do you want to know how to greet people and give your Diwali wishes? Watch this ESL lesson with Meera as she teaches you some Diwali wishes, English Phrasal verbs and a short story about why Diwali is celebrated. Understand the different days of Diwali and their importance.
This English speaking practice lesson is brought to you by Let’s Talk – English speaking course. Our English class is well structured and each English lesson plan is well designed to learn Grammar, English conversation topics, Improving English communication skills, and tips to improve English fluency. Watch our library of English lessons to speak fluent English fluently and confidently. We have a mix of Indian and Native English teachers who are well qualified and certified English trainers. Study English with Let’s Talk’s – Online English course and take your English to the next level.
Complete Lesson Transcript : –
Hey guys, welcome back. Okay I can tell you that I can’t stop smiling because it’s that time of the year, its Diwali and it’s most certainly my favorite festival. Well what I really think is that Diwali is about so many things, isn’t it? Now it’s about beautiful lanterns everywhere, bright lamps which we call diyas, people make fresh homemade sweets and snacks and it’s so much about getting time to celebrate with your loved ones, your people and chit-chatting about old memories and laughing and so many things. But what I think guys is that beyond everything, beyond everything that we spoke about Diwali is about new and good beginnings and saying goodbye to evil and darkness and I think that is the reason why this festival is celebrated not just here in India but also all over the world. Um what happens is, what I’m going to do is, towards the end of this video, I would be telling you a very, very short story about Diwali and how each day of Diwali has its own special meaning. Before we get to that part, let me give you some examples of wishes, Diwali wishes that you can use. So let’s get started.
“Wish you and your family a happy new year, prosperity, health and lots of fun.” “May this Diwali bring you and your family a year full of good health, success and happiness.” During Diwali you would find a lot of people using words such as, ‘success’, ‘bright’, ‘happiness’, ‘joy’, ‘good health’ and of course ‘prosperity’ and in their wishes to one another, they will use these common words. So guys since we’re talking about wishes and wishing people on Diwali we can also use word ‘wish’ and learn a new vocabulary and a short list of phrasal verbs with the word ‘wish’. So let’s get started, are you excited? Because I am.
Let’s start with ‘wishing on’. Okay now guys wishing on means to wish somebody on some particular day. Now that’s a simple one, I wanted to start with a simple one. So for example, “wishing you great luck on this special day.” It could be anything right, marriage or someone’s birthday or anything probably someone has won something, so you can wish them like so.
Another one ‘wish for’ is the next phrasal verb. Wish for something, which means to want something or just being hopeful about something. So “what did you wish for your birthday?” could be one such an example. “She got married to her best friend, what more could she wish for?” “Be careful what you wish for, it might just come true.”
We also have another phrasal verb ‘wish away’, which means to make something disappear just by wishing it. For instance, “I would like to wish away all my crimes.” Okay, “he would like to wish away all his debts.” “If only I could wish away bad marks from my, from my report card or mark sheet.”
Now apart from these phrasal verbs there is an idiom which you can use which is ‘I wish!’ exclamation point. It is used to say that something is impossible but you would like that to happen in your life. If I have to give you an example, let’s say, “Will you be free on the weekend?” My friend asked me and I say, “I wish!” “Was your diet plan successful?” “I wish!” “Are you traveling this holiday?” “I wish!” See, how useful and creative just a simple idiom with just two words and an exclamation can be?
Alright, now of course there is more to this lesson, okay, guys since we are celebrating a festival, hmm why don’t I blow the candles and celebrate with more words and more phrasal verbs in more phrases and examples similar to the word ‘celebrations’. I bet you would love it. Let’s get started, okay, let’s get started with the first one, ‘drink a toast to’ which means, to celebrate or wish for good fortune by raising one’s glass. So you can say “Let’s drink a toast to the success of our new brand” It’s an out of a celebration right? And that’s what we’re talking about. “Tonight we will drink a toast to ourselves.” Why not? We’ve done something good, let’s celebrate.
There’s another one actually, ‘mark the occasion’ which means, to celebrate a particular event or a particular day. Now for example, “This victory is precious, let’s mark this occasion by partying.” Another example, “We don’t win every day or every year, we need to mark this occasion.” We have to discover… “We have discovered a new planet, the world will mark this day as a special occasion or a special day.”
Now as I had promised its story time. You must know a little bit more about Diwali that it was first celebrated long back when India was known as ‘Bharatvarsh’ and when Lord Rama returned from exile of 14 years guys, that’s right. After defeating Ravana of course, that’s when he returned. It was, it was the victory of good over evil that was celebrated as Diwali and for Diwali. It was then, when people actually celebrated by lighting earthenware lamps, oil lamps called diyas and that is where the name of the festival has come from deep as in light aavli as in a row of lights. Diwali lasts for five days. Usually it is celebrated during late October to early November and each day out of these five days has its own significance and of course it begins with the first day called ‘Dhanteras’ where dhan means wealth and teras means the thirteenth day of Karthika month. It’s a month in the Hindu calendar and on this day people clean the houses in there, in order to prepare for welcoming the goddess of wealth and that is Lakshmi. So like you can see over here, we install beautiful lanterns and you know do, draw colorful, colorful rangoli everywhere. On the second day which is the after than terrace it’s called ‘chhoti Diwali’ as in the day before the actual Diwali. Now moving from the second day to the third day we have the day of Lakshmi the goddess of wealth and she is worshipped and welcomed simply by keeping the doors and windows of the house open for her to come in and it is believed that she brings wealth and good fortune to everyone and this day is also the last day of the Hindu calendar and thus the fourth day is marked as the first day of the new year Hindu new year and on this day the bond between the husband and the wife is celebrated and you may also exchange gifts with one another of course the husband and wife and there comes the fifth day of Diwali which is called ‘Bhaidooj’. It’s the last day guys of the festival and on this day the bond between the brother and sister is celebrated of course brother and sister relationship is notorious, it’s naughty, it’s beautiful at the same time and of course another opportunity to exchange gifts and laughter and memories and you would find people exchanging wishes each day of all these five days.
Guys I want you to remember that you must just remember to light lamps and not firecrackers this Diwali. We need to, we need joy and happiness and not smoke. I’m sure we are all in it together now, aren’t we? Okay guys, well you are with me, Meera and I wish all of you a very, very happy Diwali and a prosperous New Year. Lots of love from all of us here. That’s all for the day. I hope you enjoyed the lesson and I’m sure you would enjoy the festival as well. Alright guys, I will see you very soon with another lesson, another topic until then, keep smiling, keep practicing, spread a lot of love and laughter this is me Meera, see you soon, bye.
Add comment