Dasara/Navratri ended a few days ago. It's a ten day festival and one of the most important Indian holidays. It represents the day and time period when the patron Goddess of Mysore, Chamundeshwari/Durga, killed the demon Mahishasura. This year was the 402nd year that this holiday has been celebrated. There's a food fair, flower show, magic shows, concerts all over the city, sports events, lights, and exhibition grounds.
The whole city lights up. They bring in extra electricity so everyone enjoys ten days of running water and no power cuts.
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 Devaraja Street-main street downtown In North India, Dasara is celebrated as Navratri, ten days of daandiya raas and garba, a traditional dance with 'sticks.' We managed to find a Gujarati community in Mysore and celebrated with one night of raas/garba. |
Garba--dance around in one big circle
It's amazing how different North and South India are. Two of my co-workers had never danced raas garba before (something I grew up with) and were so excited to participate in something they had only seen in Hindi movies.
The last day of Dasara is celebrated with a parade of elephants and floats from all over the state of Karnataka. Even within the state there are many, many diverse cultures, traditions, and people.
Painted elephants start and end the parade
A series of 25-30 floats:
Wooden toys
Depictions of Ayurvedic Medicine
Drums made out of wheels
The procession began at Mysore Palace-home to the Wadiyer Dynasty.
Shruthi, my roommate, and Priti, a volunteer with Indicorps
Mysore Palace
402 year-old tradition! Wow! Uganda celebrated its 50th year of independence last month. Obviously, they have cultural traditions that are older than the country, but they are either (1) not as widely celebrated or (2) wiped out by conflict and/or colonialism. This means I haven't seen or heard evidence of such practices yet.
ReplyDeletePooja, you look great (and so tall!).