馃檶馃徑馃尰Sublime Sunday馃檶馃徑馃挅 by @c0ff33a - Navratri festival celebrations
The festive season has begun and every month there is something to celebrate on. Last month it was the festival of Ganesh Chaturthi and this month of September it is Navratri. Navratri is a 9 days festival which is celebrated to honor the divine feminine energy of Goddess Durga. In the word Navratri, the first half Nav stands for 9 and the second half ratri stands for night. Goddess Durga has 9 forms and each night is in honor of one form of Durga.
During these 9 days a lot of people observe fasting during the day time in the evening after breaking the fast there is a celebration, it's a night long affair. In India in the state of Gujarat, this festival is celebrated in the most elaborate way. There is a folk dance called as Garba which is done in groups during the night time. Year on year this festival is getting grand. This festival basically signifies the victory of good over evil and is celebrated in different ways in different parts of India. Like in the west the celebration is done very differently with Durga Puja, In East it is done with Garba which is the cultural folk dance, in south and north it is different. But the end message is same, that there is always victory of good over the evil.
Here in Muscat also we have the 9 nights celebration of the festival, where anyone can join in and celebrate. On Thursday along with some friends I had gone to he venue. The nights celebrations are themed in different colors.
This is the venue that we went at. It was crowded but our group manage to find space and we had enough space to dance. There is a stage in one corner where the music set up is done, there is live band who sing the Navratri special folk songs and we all do garba and dandiya dance on it.
We form a circle and dance
With my friend
With my better half
Such a fun time it was
Once in a year this is a good time to participate in these kind of celebrations. These are community gatherings where you get to connect with other people of the community and expand your contacts. The only drawback was it was extremely hot and within half an hour we were all drenched in sweat. Still we managed to stay for 2 hours and then left the venue.
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