Navratri

Navratri/Garba – October 2010

Croydon High School – South London

The other day I Googled ‘Best garba London’ and my site came up on the first page, but it was this post – http://www.tanya-n.com/?p=19 – which is from India in 2006 (one of my first posts!). That was the first time I photographed the Navratri Festival and it was absolutely brilliant. The scale of this festival is far grander in India than it is in the UK, but it is still widely celebrated and many local town halls and schools host the festival throughout the country, which lasts for 9 days.

I photographed the 8th day at a Hindu Lohana community-led event at Croydon High School in South London.

Navratri is a large Hindu festival celebrating the Goddess Durga, and the tradition is to dance in circles around an idol of the goddess. The actual dancing itself is called Garba, a Gujarati form of dancing.

It’s a very colourful event and a great opportunity for girls to wear their brightest and best Garba outfits.

These plates were designed by members of the community as part of a competition to see who can create the best ones. They are used in a Hindu ritual called an Aarti where wicks soaked in ghee are lit on the plate which is then offered to the deities, while clapping and singing.

Some of them were really quite beautiful and intricately designed.

The beauty of a wide-angle lens! I used a 10-22mm for these ground shots.

A judge inspects the Aarti plates.

Some of the winners and runner-ups:

Preparations are made for the Aarti itself:

The overall winner of the competition:

During the Aarti, some women (generally of older generations) get what’s called ‘Mataji’. I’m not quite sure how to describe it but it’s almost as though they become possessed (by the goddess supposedly) and they start clapping and moving to the music. Surprisingly I couldn’t find much information about it online..

Garba dancing is great fun. Sticks are also used as part of the dancing, and there are various styles and moves – depending on how adventurous you want to be.

Prasad (usally Indian sweets, fruit, nuts etc.) is offered to worshippers upon leaving.

Navratri is just one many of the annual colourful festivals in the Hindu calendar but probably the most vibrant in terms of the ceremonies and dancing involved.

Thanks for looking, as always : )