Navratri 2008

Its Navratri season. This is one of the most famous festivals of the hindus. Naratri is a sanskri word, ‘Nav' means nine. ‘Ratri’ is made up of Ra, meaning night and Tri, meaning the Three aspects of our life: Body, Mind and Soul. So, 'Navaratri' means giving rest to all the three aspects of our life, for nine days! The tenth day of the festival is called 'Dusshera' in North India and 'Vijayadasami' in south india, is celebrated grandly which symbolises the victory of good over evil.
Although the concept of the festival is same, the way of celebrating this festival is different in North India and South India. The highlight of the festival is the “Golu”, which is the arrangement of dolls across nine( or any odd number of steps, minimum to be 3) steps at one home. Not all the hindus follow this tradition. Its the family who has this custom since generations would follow it. Neighbours and friends are invited to see their presentation, sing songs , and would have snacks and some gift . It is considered auspicious to do this, as its believed to bring more fortune to the house hosting the Golu
Its a feast for the eyes to see the arragement if the dolls in the 'Golu'. I miss all the fun happening in chennai. But i asked my mom to send some pictures of golu that she might happen to go. And she sent me few. I would like to share it with you all.

Arrangement of dolls on the steps:

Traditional tanjore dancing dolls(Thalai aati bomai in tamil)
Step 1 from top - Vishnu's 10 avatars ,

Step 2 - Bala krishna, Kamadenu, Ganesha, saraswathi

Step 3 - Ashtalaskmi

and so on.

Durga, Lakshmi wtih Narasimhar & Saraswathi
Durga :







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