In South India we celebrate Navratri by arranging dolls/bombe made of clay or wood in steps of 5,7,9,11... The most important of all is the couple dolls made of Sandalwood which is handed over by bride's parents to bride during wedding and the kalasa(a silver/brass pot filled with water, on top is placed a coconut over mango leaves and is decorated with flowers).. Ideals of god and goddess are arranged on the top steps followed by statues of people, animals, all creations of god....
We worship the three forms of Goddess on nine days of Navratri and invite guests to witness our arrangement..Guests are given Haldi kumkum, beetal leaf, supari and any fruit and gifts to kids. On 9th day thats Mahanavami special pooja is performed to Books, as Goddess Saraswathi is the Goddess of Knowledge...Also vehicles and other tools used at home are washed and decorated with flowers as a celebration of Ayudha Pooja ...On Vijayadashami evening, after the pooja one of the dolls in the arrangement is made to sleep and kalasa is moved towards North to mark end of that years celebration.
As kids this used to be one of our favorite festivals, where in we used to visit everybody's house to witness their arrangement...This was the first year we arranged Bombe at home and all three of us were excited... My hubby helped me with the furnishing and lighting and the final arrangement turned out to be very good..Following are the pics of our doll arrangement.
No comments:
Post a Comment