Navrathri

NAVRATHRI

Navrathri (NAV-RAA-THREE) is a festival dedicated to the worship of the Hindu goddess Durga. The word Navrathri literally means “Nine nights” in Sanskrit (‘nava’ means nine and ‘rathri’ means night), so the festival is celebrated for nine nights and ten days.

The story behind Navrathri is the battle between the goddess Durga (DOOR-GA) and the demon Mahishasura (MA-HEE-SHAA-SU-RAA). There is also another story to explain this festival: In the Ramayana, Lord Rama had a huge battle with the demon Ravana in Lanka and this festival celebrates the days of that war culminating in victory. You can read the detailed stories here. Ultimately, Navrathri is the celebration of the triumph of truth over evil. 

Navrathri is celebrated in different ways in different parts of India. In South India (Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Telangana as well as the Union Territories of Andaman and Nicobar, Lakshadweep and Puducherry), it is called Golu; in East India (Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, West Bengal, and also the union territory Andaman and Nicobar Islands), it is celebrated as Durga Pooja; in West India (Goa, Gujarat and Maharashtra, along with the Union Territories of Daman and Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli) it is celebrated as Garba; and in North India (Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Rajasthan, and the Union Territories Delhi and Chandigarh), it is celebrated as Ramlila. In this article, we will tell you about the South Indian way of celebrating Navrathri - Golu. Check out this article to know more about the other kinds of Navrathri!

Golu is mainly a social event. There are poojas (rituals) toward the end of the festival - the 8th day is Saraswathi (SA-RA-SVA-THEE) Pooja and the 9th day is Vijayadasami (VI-JAYA-DUH-SUH-MEE). I'll explain more about this at the end.

A "golu" is basically a a set of steps set up and decorated with dolls and idols (made from clay or paper mache usually) arranged on it that we generally buy in shops and roadside stalls in South India. Sometimes, aside from the dolls of the Gods and Goddesses, some people set up scenes of regular day to day things like a marketplace scene or a park. Some even have scenes of a marriage, a pooja, or a cricket game. It's all up to creativity!

Here are some pictures of some Golus:

Here's an example of the golu at one of Ranjani's relative's houses in India

You can see a close up of the dolls and arrangement in the pictures above

Here's the golu at Ranjani's friend Sowmya's house in India. Instead of setting up steps, they decided to use the shelves in the wall to arrange their golu on. 

When there's more stuff to display, people usually decorate an extra table or something next to the golu steps

Another golu at one of Ranjani's relative's houses

 Above are pictures of the golu at of Ranjani's friend Divakar's house in Chennai in India

These were the golus at Ranjani's house in two different years in India

Below are some more pictures from these

This was Ranjani way back in 2013, wearing a gaghra choli (a type of North Indian outfit)

This is a marriage scene. The dolls and pieces for these type of scenes are usually sold as sets.

Ranjani decorated the sides of her golu with streamers. One can decorate their golu extravagantly or keep things simple. It is ultimately up to their creativity!

This is the golu at Ranjani's aunt's house

Navrathri is also celebrated by Indians in the United States! Indians here either get their dolls and steps shipped from India or order them all off amazon (which is what is most used). The problem with shipping these from India is that some dolls are made from clay and therefore very heavy and all the dolls are very delicate and can might break while shipping if the package is not handled carefully. 

These steps are set up and the dolls are arranged on them and decorated and this arrangement is kept throughout the duration of the festival. During Navrathri, people who set up golus in their house invite friends and relatives over to see it and they go to other people's houses too. When you go to see someone's golu, you can choose to sing in praise of the goddesses or just sit down and look at the golu. When you are leaving, you get something like a return gift as a "thank you for coming" sort of thing. This is generally only for the women and young girls, by the way, because Navrathri is first and foremost a ladies' festival, but these days people buy stuff to give to young boys too when their moms drag them along to these things. Typically, a return gift consists of two betel leaves; something called "paaku" in Tamil (it would be called something different in other languages); a fruit; and "kungumam" and "chandanam" (again, these are the names for the things in Tamil and it would be called something different in other languages). 

Ranjani was invited to her friend Manas's house and her aunt's house for Navrathri. We both went to her friend Manas's house on Saturday, October 1st, the first day of Navrathri in 2016 (the dates for festivals change every year since the Hindu calendar is based on the moon and stars). 

The golu at Ranjani's friend Manas's house

From left to right: Ranjani, Sarah and Manas, standing in front of Manas's golu. Ranjani is wearing an anarkali, Sarah is wearing a gaghra choli, and Manas is wearing a sari.

There are two rules to Navrathri:

1. Once you start, you must keep the golu in your home every year. The only exception to this rule is if a family member dies, in which case you cannot celebrate any festival for a full year.
2. You must add at least one new doll every year.

   

   During Navrathri, we must perform a pooja for the goddess every day, morning and evening, and prepare a sweet (we'll devote a whole blog post to Indian sweets soon - there are thousands of different sweets one can prepare at home) or sundal (SOON-DAL) (a traditional South Indian dish prepared from chickpeas, peanuts, black eyed peas, or moong beans, etc.) as offerings and give as 'prasadam' (PRA-SAA-DUM) to the guests who visit our house. 

   

THE END OF NAVRATHRI:

   The 8th day of Navrathri is called Saraswathi Pooja. It is a day devoted to the goddess Saraswathi, so on this day we must not study anything. Students in India usually have a holiday from school for this day. On the morning of Saraswathi Pooja, each person in the household takes some of their books, a notebook, and a pen and/or pencil and piles it all up in front of the goddess (it could be in front of the golu or in the pooja room or the prayer area). Then we cover it with a cloth and do a pooja (ritual) for the goddess Saraswathi and leave everything like that for the rest of the day, until the next morning.

In the above pictures, you will see the books and notebooks covered by an orange cloth and the Mridangam instrument kept in front of the golu for Saraswathi Pooja

   The 9th day of Navrathri is called Vijayadasami. This is an auspicious day to start learning something new. People going to music, dance, or any kind of class are usually called by their teacher for just a short class on this day even if they usually don't have class that day of the week to learn something new. A pooja is performed again and the cloth is removed off the books. Each person is given their books and they read something in each of their books and write something in their notebooks. This symbolizes the goddess's blessings in studies in those subjects and further learning. There is also a tradition of writing in raw rice. A platter of uncooked rice is placed in front of everyone and they each take turns writing with their fingers in it - first the chant "Om Sri Maha Ganapathaye Namaha" thrice in Sanskrit, then usually the alphabet and some numbers. Ranjani usually traces the English and Hindi alphabet with her fingers in the rice and then the numbers from 1 to 10 or 20 or any number she wants. This symbolizes the blessings of the goddess in reading, writing and math. On the night of the 9th day, the dolls are supposed to be lain down on the steps, to "put them to sleep". If there is not enough space, people usually lay down one or two dolls.

   The 10th day of Navrathri is the day all the dolls on the steps are taken down and carefully packed into boxes to store away until next year. The steps are dismantled and the decorations taken down and everything is stored away safely. The only exception to this is if the tenth day falls on a Tuesday or Friday, which are auspicious days for the Goddess Ambal (AAM-BAAL), in which case the golu will be taken down the days after that.