Menomellay; Festival Play

There are a LOT of festivals associated with this time of year, in all countries and in all different ways. Recently there was Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanaa, soon there will be Halloween/All-saints, Thanksgiving, Kwanzaa, Hannukah, Christmas... In India, there are many small festivals, but there are several 'all country' happenings also and the majority of those are from end August through to end November. Began with Krishna-janmaastami, then came Ganesh Chaturthi.

As of tomorrow, it is Navraatri - the nine nights of the Goddess/feminine principle. All the spiritual significance is being covered over at AV-blog, but here I would just like to share some of the colour and joy which accompanies such things.

Ladies get their new saris on (often colour-coded to the relevant puja that day) and there is much chanting of Mother's name; she who nurtures and defends and guides.

What is one of Mother's favourite pastimes?  To dance! Here is a mandir (temple) in Gujurat where the entire congregation gathers to dance for Mother. The bhajan (think 'gospel song') is rhythmic and repeatedly calls on Her name. The garba (think 'line dance'...but in circles) is also rhythmic and mesmerising. Watch the entire five minutes then see if you can walk in a straight line after!