Holidays & Observances: Devi Navratri / Dusshera begins

For all the posts in this Holidays & Observances series, go here.

Prologue: I have been meaning to write a series about Holidays and Observances that we (my family and friends) follow in both India (my birth country) and USA (my adopted country). This series is dedicated to those. On a side note, perhaps I might witness some of the celebrations from other countries as well that may get their way into this series. 🙂

The 10-day festival of Dusshera continues with the start of Navratri on Oct 15th this year (2023). Each day Goddess Durga is decorated in a unique way specific to that day. The key aspect of Navratri apart from the daily pooja (= rituals) are the several events of Garbha and Dandiya. A North-Indian tradition that has seeped into South India too.

This is a Gujarati dance form which originated in the State of Gujarat, India. Many traditional garbas are performed around a centrally lit lamp or a picture or statue of the Goddess Shakti or Durga. This is performed by both men and women, and involves Dandiyas (= wooden sticks resembling swords) too as another form of the dance known as Dandiya Raas.

Here is mom sporting the Dandiya sticks at one of the Garbha events we went to near to my town I live in. It was a fun filling event with dance and songs, and we ended up dancing for a few hours.