I realize it has been a while since my last blog post, and while I probably could have scrounged up some time to do one earlier, the main reason for this is that my normal weekend writing time was spent traveling. We spent one day in Bombay, though mostly that was just passing through on our way to Ahmedabad, for the remainder of the long weekend. Ahmedabad is in western India, in the state of Gujrat. It is actually a really big city, not as much as Bombay in population, but very sprawling, which makes it feel more relaxed. In a lot of ways that actually made it feel slightly more western to me, since western cities do tend to be pretty spread out that way.
We went to Ahmedabad to stay with Ben's aunt for a while (Indian culture is really big on paying people visits) but the particular reason that we chose this time to go is that it was Navratri. Navratri is a 10 day celebration that leads up to Desshera, the day in honor of Ram killing Ravan. Basically it is an excuse to party for 10 days; there are huge celebrations where everyone dresses up in traditional clothes and dances for basically the entire night. And of course, I got to attend just such an event.
Ben's cousin lent me some traditional clothes to wear- a skirt, top, shawl, and lots and lots of heavy silver jewelry. The jewelery is particularly important, because the event is all about getting as dressed up as you possibly can, so you basically put on every piece of silver that you own. Plus you need the jewelry to make lots of jingling noises as you dance, probably one of my favourite things about the event in fact. Anyway, once you get all dressed up, the actual celebration begins. Technically the dancing is all part of a pooja, or worship. The particular pooja that happens during Navratri is called Garbha, and is best known for dances with dandiya, two wooden sticks that you hit together as you dance. The particular one that we went to didn't have any dandiya, but the dancing mostly followed the same patterns. The dances are made up of a lot of circles that kind of spontaneously pop up everywhere. The people in each group can do any specific steps that they like, and they tend to just cycle through a bunch of different things. As you can imagine, it is great for big groups of friends, who tend to go every night (often skipping school in the process.)
When I first got to the Garbha, it basically felt like something straight out of a Bollywood movie. Really those giant dance numbers are not as far fetched as I had originally believed, because I found myself right in the middle of the oranized chaos that is hundreds of dancing people. For the first little bit we stuck to the outsides, along with plenty of other people who just wanted to watch, or were simply resting. At the far end of the open area where the Garbha was held there was a stage with the live band; I would say there were close to twenty musicians who played nearly straight through the night, each night, for ten days. Very impressive.
After a while we started hopping in with the dancing, which was much harder than it looked. We didn't exactly have a teacher, so we just had to watch and repeat what we saw. The only problem is that the groups would move seamlessly from one type of dance to the next, so just when you are getting the hang of something, you get tossed a new set to learn. We danced for a bit, but I would say that for the most part I was happy simply watching and taking lots of pictures.
I had always known that India was a country of celebrations, but this was when I really started to understand the extent. When I first arrived the Ganesha celebration was raging, and just before that was the celebration of cows, in which all of them had their horns painted in bright colours. In a lot of ways though, Navratri signals one things- the coming of Diwali. When you look at the plethora of occasions that India celebrates, Diwali really sticks out as being one of the most important. So really all of the getting dressed up, nonstop partying, and family gatherings is just beginning.
I have included some pictures at the end of this post. The first one is of Ben and I in the traditional Garbha clothes, just before heading out. Then the next one is of the actual Garbha itself. It was nighttime and everyone was moving so it was tough to get good pictures, but it at least gives you an idea of the scope and just how dressed up everyone gets. I will upload a video or two soon as well, which I took of some of the dancers.
We went to Ahmedabad to stay with Ben's aunt for a while (Indian culture is really big on paying people visits) but the particular reason that we chose this time to go is that it was Navratri. Navratri is a 10 day celebration that leads up to Desshera, the day in honor of Ram killing Ravan. Basically it is an excuse to party for 10 days; there are huge celebrations where everyone dresses up in traditional clothes and dances for basically the entire night. And of course, I got to attend just such an event.
Ben's cousin lent me some traditional clothes to wear- a skirt, top, shawl, and lots and lots of heavy silver jewelry. The jewelery is particularly important, because the event is all about getting as dressed up as you possibly can, so you basically put on every piece of silver that you own. Plus you need the jewelry to make lots of jingling noises as you dance, probably one of my favourite things about the event in fact. Anyway, once you get all dressed up, the actual celebration begins. Technically the dancing is all part of a pooja, or worship. The particular pooja that happens during Navratri is called Garbha, and is best known for dances with dandiya, two wooden sticks that you hit together as you dance. The particular one that we went to didn't have any dandiya, but the dancing mostly followed the same patterns. The dances are made up of a lot of circles that kind of spontaneously pop up everywhere. The people in each group can do any specific steps that they like, and they tend to just cycle through a bunch of different things. As you can imagine, it is great for big groups of friends, who tend to go every night (often skipping school in the process.)
When I first got to the Garbha, it basically felt like something straight out of a Bollywood movie. Really those giant dance numbers are not as far fetched as I had originally believed, because I found myself right in the middle of the oranized chaos that is hundreds of dancing people. For the first little bit we stuck to the outsides, along with plenty of other people who just wanted to watch, or were simply resting. At the far end of the open area where the Garbha was held there was a stage with the live band; I would say there were close to twenty musicians who played nearly straight through the night, each night, for ten days. Very impressive.
After a while we started hopping in with the dancing, which was much harder than it looked. We didn't exactly have a teacher, so we just had to watch and repeat what we saw. The only problem is that the groups would move seamlessly from one type of dance to the next, so just when you are getting the hang of something, you get tossed a new set to learn. We danced for a bit, but I would say that for the most part I was happy simply watching and taking lots of pictures.
I had always known that India was a country of celebrations, but this was when I really started to understand the extent. When I first arrived the Ganesha celebration was raging, and just before that was the celebration of cows, in which all of them had their horns painted in bright colours. In a lot of ways though, Navratri signals one things- the coming of Diwali. When you look at the plethora of occasions that India celebrates, Diwali really sticks out as being one of the most important. So really all of the getting dressed up, nonstop partying, and family gatherings is just beginning.
I have included some pictures at the end of this post. The first one is of Ben and I in the traditional Garbha clothes, just before heading out. Then the next one is of the actual Garbha itself. It was nighttime and everyone was moving so it was tough to get good pictures, but it at least gives you an idea of the scope and just how dressed up everyone gets. I will upload a video or two soon as well, which I took of some of the dancers.
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