Janmashtami Celebrations | DIY Krishna Crown | Radha and Krishna

My mom is a great devotee of Lord Krishna and has always celebrated Janmashtami with a lot of enthusiasm.  From preparing various food and prasad to offer to God, to staying up until midnight to celebrate Krishna bhagwan's janam and swinging the statue of Krishna on his little swing, and what nots.  I have not been very religious since the beginning, so all I used to love during my high school years on these festivals was decorating.  We, as parents, like to pass on to our children a part of what we grow up with.  While I leave the religious importance and lessons on spirituality for my parents to teach to Keshav and Alisha, I want to pass on my excitement for everything else for a festival to my little kids.

Keshav and Alisha's first Janmashtami was in Bangkok in September 2015 when they were 7 months old and I was at my parents' place at the time.  I was ecstatic to dress them up as Krishna and Radha (Keshav, by the way, is another name for Lord Krishna).

Dressing up kids for Janmashtami

• I had not bought any Indian attire for my kids at that age, so the coordinated pink clothes that they are wearing were given to us by an aunt who had stitched those for the large size Radha-Krishna statues she has at her home.

• The necklaces that Keshav and Alisha are wearing are regular artificial pearl necklaces.

• I did not have any bracelets and arm bands for their tiny hands, so I used rakhi (yes, the rakhi that's tied on Raksha Bandhan) as Keshav's bracelet and Alisha's armband (and Alisha is wearing one of the tiny handmade necklace for God as her bracelet).

• Alisha has a bindi on her forehead and what you see as her maang tikka (the decorative piece that rests on the head) is one of my earrings!

How to make Krishna Crown?

• I traced with pencil on the back of a golden colored paper, glued it to a thicker white cardstock paper, and cut out the crown.

• For embellishments - there were a lot of handmade bead jewelry that my grandmother had made for the little statues of God at home--especially necklaces for the "bal gopal" (baby Krishna statue).  So I used those and taped them to the paper crown, and a Krishna Crown seems incomplete without a peacock feather so that was taped on the back, and VOILA!  I don't know if you'll agree--but this, I believe, is probably the easiest method you will ever find to make Krishna crown for Janmashtami!

I made one crown for my Krishna and one for my Radha.  But to be honest, at 7 months old, they would not let the crown stay on their head for a single second!

Their second Janmashtami was in August 2016 here in California and there were a couple of invites at our friends' place for celebration and bhajan.  At one of our friend's place you'd be amazed at the beautiful Janmashtami decorations they made using cardboard and boxes and paper and cotton and  grass and flowers and what nots!

How to make a DIY Krishna Crown for Janmashtami?

This year, I traced a pattern for crown on the same golden paper from last year, glued it to a cardstock sheet and cut it out.
I do not have any statues of God or any jewelry for Gods here, but I had a bag of rhinestones (for crafting) and lots of rakhi (from raksha bandhan over the years) and a peacock feather (from I wonder where!?) and super glue and glitter pens, and a broken earring that is used as the focus of attention (the purple circle that you see).

So I put all that together and made this Krishna mukut (aka crown):

I got Keshav and Alisha's traditional Indian clothes from India during my last trip, so that's what they wore.  For Keshav, I let him wear only the bottom dhoti from his attire and let him be bare-chested.  What you see him wearing as a necklace is my neckpiece, and his armbands are rakhi.  I should have put something as bracelets and anklets for Alisha but I forgot to on that day.  They were 18 months old here and Keshav was very cooperative with his crown, keeping it on without hesitation.  Next time I will make a flute for him (did not get the time for that this year!).

That's all I've got to share from their two Janmashtami celebrations so far!  I hope you liked this post and took away some good ideas for next Janmashtami for your kid/s!  Share your pictures and ideas with me if you get a chance.