Every fall, Indians are excited to celebrate the festival of Navratri in vivid and varying traditional ways.
The festival’s origins are rooted in Hindu mythology – the powerful god Lord Brahma blessed a demon, Mahishasura, with the gift of immortality as Mahishasura had remained loyal to him for a long time. Mahishasura’s gift of immortality had one exception, however: the person who would defeat him would be a woman.
Mahishasura, who was cocky, didn’t believe any woman would be strong enough to kill him, and used his immortality viciously to attack the people of Earth. This was until Goddess Durga intervened – for nine days, Durga fought the demon with strength until she was finally able to defeat Mahishasura. This prevalence of good over evil created the festival of Navratri, celebrating the period over which Durga defeated Mahishasura.
Navaratri, typically celebrated between September to October, celebrates Goddess Durga, the mother goddess, and honors women through this beautiful festival. Over nine days and nights, each day symbolizes a different color that honors a female goddess, and Hindus wear a different coloured traditional outfit to reflect this. The colors are yellow, green, gray, orange, white, red, royal blue, pink, and peacock green, and they represent the nine Navratri goddesses: Shailaputri, Brahmacharini, Chandraghanta, Kushmanda, Skandamata, Katyayani, Kaalarati, Mahagauri, and finally, Durga herself.
The festival involves a lot of different traditions that carried over to the United States as Hindu immigrants sought out opportunity. Today, Hindu-Americans celebrate Navratri vivaciously and extensively, in many different ways, showcasing their culture. For some, the festival is a time for religious reflection and fasting, while for others, it is an occasion to dance, feast, and worship.
One way to celebrate Navratri is by decorating the house. Many South-Indian Americans set up a golu, which is a display of steps that is structured to carry different statues of Hindu deities. Often, mithai (Indian sweets) are made to offer as parshad (sacred food) to the deities, as a form of worship and respect.
Another way, and perhaps the most famous way to celebrate Navratri, is by dancing in garba and dandiya raas, two forms of folk dance originating in the state of Gujarat, India. These two forms involve dancing in repetitive movements in a circle around a statue of a deity (typically Goddess Durga herself). Often, wooden sticks known as dandiya are used as well to sound out rhythm and help with the dance movements performed in dandiya raas.
Garba and Dandiya Raas have become such popular forms of dance for Indian-Americans to do during the festival of Navaratri that they have been popularized as forms of friendly competition. Many high schools and universities across the United States have created Raas dance teams and clubs to perform the dance together and compete against other local teams.
In the United States, where Indian-Americans come together to celebrate Navratri, people can connect with one another in sharing a love for dance and a shared culture. Navaratri is truly a bright and vivacious way to learn about Indian culture and join the celebration.