 Dancers at the Navaratri Festival  |
With dancing, singing and music in the streets, Navaratri is India’s version of Carnevale or Mardi Gras but, unlike these festivals, Navaratri doesn’t just take place in one city or region. It’s a nationwide affair, with the biggest and brightest celebrations taking place each year in India’s western-most state of Gujarat.
Here the revelry extends into the wee hours of the morning as every city, town and village resounds to the beckoning hypnotic beat of drums. It’s a rainbow of colour and mirrored costumes twirling in a dazzling spectacle of spellbinding symmetry.
Gujarat doesn’t sleep during Navaratri and its capital Ahmedabad, comes alive with the colour of this Hindu festival of worship and dance. The word Navratri literally means nine nights in Sanskrit; Nava - Nine and Ratri - nights. During these nine days and nights, nine forms of Shakti or female divinity are worshipped. Navratri is bigger in Gujarat than in any other part of India, including Rajasthan and it is also the largest festival celebrated in Nepal.
Copyright ©Karen Halabi 2007
1800 wds
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