Navratri celebration @ home

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.

Navratri

Going on with the festive posts.

This time we celebrated Gauri Ganesha festival at my native, connected with a trip to Mysore.... We had a short one week trip and had to be back as my hubby didn't have much leaves and i didn't wanted Maanvi to miss her classes... Once back in Mumbai it always happens that am home sick and it will take couple of days for me to come back to routine... But this time i made up my mind and thought of engaging myself in preparing for Navratri which was hardly 20 days left....

Navratri is festival of nine nights, where we worship Goddess Durga/Parvathi for first three days, Lakshmi for next three and Saraswathi for coming 3 days and on the last day thats tenth day(dashami in Hindu calender) we celebrate Vijayadashami the Vijaya/Victory of Goddess Durga by killing Mahishasura the evil... That is why Durga is also know by the name Mahishasura Mardhini.

This year i was introduced to a new celebration during Navratri called Lalitha Panchami which is celebrated on the fifth day(also on 4th or 6th day) in Maharastra. They invite Girls/Kids(so called Kanya) for special lunch, wash their feet and hands and do pooja with Haldi Kunkum and present them gifts... One of my neighbor had invited Maanvi for this celebration .. When checked with aunty she told me this day they worship Lalitha Maha Sundari Devi, one of the forms of Goddess Durga....

Krishna Janmashtami

Krishna Janmashtami as the name says signifies the birth of lord Krishna, celebrated on Ashtami, the 8th day of Shravan Maas in Hindu calender...Janmashtami is celebrated in different ways in different parts of the country, here in Mumbai its very well know as Dahi Handi....

A pot/matka filled with dahi/curd in hung up in the air... A gang of participants so called Balgopals or Govindas make human pyramid down on the ground to reach the pot hung up high and break it with coconut. When i searched for the History behind this celebration, came across this interesting story.

A community called Pathare Prabhu staying in the village called Girgaum in south Mumbai (then called Bombay) used to celebrate the birth of Lord Krishna by performing Govinda. This community of Pathare Prabhu was affluent and had many servants to work on their farms. These workers were mainly from Kunbi community from Bankot in Konkan region of Maharastra state in India. On Krishna's birthday, earthen pot filled with Dahi curds and butter and other eatables preferably bananas would be hung at a suitable height. Servants of the Pathare Prabhu families would collect and make a human pyramid under the pot and then a little boy most probably the youngest child from that family would climb over them, reach the pot and then break it. That was the sport to be played on that day to celebrate the birth of the lord. check it out in detail here.

2010 was my first year here in Mumbai and i was so much excited to witness the dahi handi near my place. I still remember we started from home at 6 in the evening, even after my husband telling me that all the handis would be broken only after 10. I just wanted to see how exactly the celebration would be... I must say, i just loved the crowd, people, people and people everywhere. And the Govindas in their vehicles....

Even after two years i had the same spirit to walk into the crowded streets this year too. I do enjoy watching the crowd, but when i watch the kid on the top of the human pyramid trying to break the handi i just prey, no one should get hurt.....

The crowd...

Participants with their trophies

One of the dahi handi's we never miss to visit every year is Sanskruti Prathishtan, which is very much near my place and also because we get to see some Bollywood celebrity guests... Its almost 50ft high with prize money upto 25lacs. Below are the pics of Sanskruti Prathishtan, i had to forcibly pull my hubby to the terrace of a building nearby to witness this..

It started raining so heavily and he got a chance to pull me off from there as it would take 2 more hours for the handi to be broken.... On the way back we found another Handi and since the rain had stopped, we thought of waiting there. We waited for almost an hour and it was worth a wait to witness two handis to be broken....