Mud art, mud pie, mud slides, mud castles = mud-reffic day. The idea is to get dirty and get outdoors probably every child’s dream and mud day has given just that permission to children around the world.
The first International Mud Day was celebrated in Ithaca Children’s Garden in the USA 2012. The Mud Day beginning has a short history and story of bonding that has brought two different countries’ children together in a special bond.
History of International Mud Day
Not so long ago in 2009, during World Forum for Early Childhood Care and Education in Belfast discussed the challenges faced by children while playing with mud. The members belonged to Nature Action Collaborative for Children, from two different parts of the world, Gillian McAuliffe from Western Australia and Bishnu Bhatta from Nepal.
Both shared very different context:
Perth is situated in sandy plains and the culture of “No To Get Dirty” shared Gillian.
Nepal has lots of mud but the children didn’t have enough clothes to be able to get them dirty or soap to wash them.
This story of Nepal was narrated to 7-8 years old children by Gillian, Director of Teaching and Learning at Bold Park Community School. The children decided to send the clothes to Nepal so those children can play with mud. They raised $1000 in three weeks and sent it to Bishnu to buy clothes for some children there. The Special day was arranged by Bishnu in September 2009 for the children of Panchkal orphanage.
Since then these two groups of children share a very special bond and celebrate mud day.
Now International Mud Day is celebrated by thousands of kids, schools, and families in dozens of countries.
CM International School, Pune shared with NexSchools an account of International Mud Day Celebration.
Mud Day Celebration in CMI School
“The world is mud – luscious and puddle – wonderful”
The Mud day is a day for children to connect directly with the mother earth. They feel the warmth of mother earth by lying, rolling around and playing in the mud without any barriers.
CM International School celebrated International Mud day on 29 June 2018. The purpose behind this was to bring the students closer to nature so that they create an incredible bonding with the nature we are blessed with.
The students started off cautiously, mostly walking in the mud and splashing their legs a little. The students were involved in various activities- making mud toys, mud cake, mud castles and many more.
All students enjoyed the mystic scent of earth beneath them. It was a treat for students to beat their feet in all kinds of mud and celebrate Mud day even though they created a great deal of mess for their mom’s (by getting all muddy). In fact, they got so muddy, they resembled earthen pots.
It was a truly invigorating experience and students of CMIS experienced the most magical way of celebrating the mud day.
Photo credit: CMIS, Pune