Crafts to Celebrate Ridvan

In my ongoing quest to learn more about holidays I don’t know about (and taking you along for the scroll), let’s learn about Ridvan, which is a 12-day festival taking place in 2026 from April 20 to May 2.

This holiday, also known as the Most Great Festival or the King of Festivals, is part of the Baha’i faith and commemorates when their leader, Baha’u’llah, was exiled from Baghdad in 1863. In preparing to leave the city he spent 12 days in the garden of Ridvan (which means paradise) saying goodbye to his followers and revealing teachings and publicly declaring himself as a manifestation of God. You can learn more about it from this video.

Because Baha’u’llah was in a garden, where roses were gathered each day and distributed to followers, gardens and roses are a big part of Ridvan celebrations.

Delighted Hearts has a beautiful 3D printable you can cut out and assemble to make your own garden of Ridvan. They also have several Ridvan coloring pages with quotes and prayers on them that would be nice cards to make for the festival.

Combine this with the 3D Ridvan garden printables from Home of Peace Studio to make a whole Ridvan scene kids can color and assemble.

Another great resource for learning about Ridvan and Ridvan crafts is All Done Monkey. They have a post all about ways to celebrate Ridvan in community with kids, including having a picnic in a garden or doing some gardening. She also has a collection of craft ideas including rose crafts, crowns, a flower board and more. And why not make some rose cookies to go with your crafting session?

A Gladsome Heart has a 12 page printable activity book that includes the story of Ridvan, coloring pages, a maze, crossword and more.

Enable Me to Grow also has some great ideas for celebrating Ridvan, including a tea party in an indoor tent (how fun is that?), making a flower board (shown here) and a felt garden.

This one isn’t specific to Ridvan of course but you can learn how to make an easy paper rose with this tutorial from Mom Does Reviews.

As if Diwali weren’t colorful and fun enough, The Festival of Lights: A Lift-the-flap Diwali Celebration by Namita Moolani Mehra, illustrated by Darshika Varm, makes it even more fun to read about with flaps and things to lift and pull to see more information or details in the illustrations.

The book is a story about a family getting ready for Diwali and what happens on the different days of the five-day celebration. There’s cleaning, shopping, crafting, food preparation and getting the home altar ready for the big day.

It covers decorating the outside of the house with rangoli, diyas and lanterns, buying sweets to share with family and friends, the sights and scents of the mandir (home temple), getting dressed up in new fancy clothes, the story of Diwali and celebrations with relatives.

Flaps (there are more than 140 in all) give you vocabulary words for different foods and definitions, as well as fun things like what’s inside the shopping basket or where the cat is hanging out. They also help illuminate the story of Diwali, which is the triumph of good over evil as Lord Ram defeated the demon Ravana to save his wife, Sita.

This pretty and colorful book helps kids understand what Diwali is and how it is celebrated, regardless of whether they practice it at home. This would be a nice book to keep in a classroom (it’s rated for kids ages 3-7) or to have at home to teach kids about Diwali even if it’s not something you celebrate. Where I live there are a lot of people from India so we are probably exposed to Diwali more than some other regions of America, but it’s a nice holiday to know about wherever you live.

Combine with the book Diwali and check out some fun lantern crafts and printables for kids to round out your experience.

About the book: 24 pages, hardcover, published 2025 by Wide Eyed Editions. Suggested retail prices $22.99.

Have you read?

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