Navarathri

So, in the September and October of last year we celebrated some pretty sweet Hindu festivals. I haven't posted to my blog in a LOOONG time, and this dark thunder cloud hanging over my head of wanting to write about Diwali and Navarathri has just grown bigger and bigger. It's daunting, because I feel like I need to give a full, educated description of these festivals to teach all you all about Hinduism. Ha. Well, I've given up on that desire. I've learned a lot, but the Hindu faith is still a crazy web of folktales and names and I just can't seem to be that expert for you all. Parvati alone has 108 names. And in Tamil Nadu, they call them all different names too. Every family I've talked to has a different way of understanding these festivals. Different scriptures say different things, and then there are regional folktales that confuse it all even more. But I will share what I've learned with my running commentary on these pictures.


Navarathri is a nine day goddess festival. It is mostly dedicated to Durga, who is the angry warrior form of Parvati, who is the mother goddess. The other two goddesses in the uber-important goddess trio are Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth and luck, and Saraswati, the goddess of education, music and art. Each goddess has her own special day in this nine day festival. My downstairs neighbor Priya made this impressive display that took up half her living room. It sort of reminds me of a Christmas Nativity with Mary, Jesus, the cows, angels, wisemen and shepherds... But this is waaaayyy more. The eleven tiers represent different stories and scriptures. The top shelf has an idle of the three goddesses coming together as one. My other neighbor Sujata said this was Mookambigai! But I heard that comes from a Tamil Nadu folktale, not everyone believes that. Then below are the three goddesses. One shelf even has all ten avitars of Vishnu (Krishna being the most popular by far.)


Here are small dolls representing Priya, her husband, her son and daughter. They are at the base of the 11 shelves, and the offering is placed before them. I think it's pretty cool how this female-based festival also makes this a festival to worship the family unit. Every day is about bringing your family peace, wealth, education, luck.... Keeping everyone from harm. Placing the idols of yourselves in front of the idols of the gods seemed very important to me.


Here is a shopkeeper selling all his goods. On Lakshmi puja day, all the store keepers clean and decorate their shops to bring wealth and luck. Priya's spread also included the entire miniature scene of Krishna playing his flute up in a tree to coax the beautiful bathing maidens out of the river. My camera battery died before I could take the picture of that. Sorry.


Saraswati puja was my favorite day by far, because I consider Saraswati to be my personal goddess. For this day, I got invited to my friend Sujata's house. This is their family prayer room, with a special alter set up for Saraswati. Notice the scissors, spoons, and other daily tools placed to the right of the alter. The significance is to bless the things you use everyday so you do things with the educated, artful guidance of Saraswati. All the books the family was currently reading were placed underneath the alter. I put my pen along with the tools, which Sujata returned to me a few days later. The whole family sang some songs, and they process around the house with incense to bless every room.


After puja (prayer), they went outside to feed the cow who comes everyday for breakfast (not their cow, just a cow who knows to come every morning by 9:30), and then up to the roof to deposit some rice for the crows to eat. Sure enough, the crows came flocking the minute Sujata banged the plate to call them.


That evening, I went with Sujata and family to the big temple near our neighborhood for even more Saraswati puja. Here is a vendor outside the temple selling all the figurines you can collect to make your alters like Priya's. Believe it or not, this was the first time I've set foot into a temple since I've been in India! I thought this was very significant, that my first trip was to go worship Saraswati. I lit her a little lamp of ghee, and Sujata and her mom explained all the parts of the temple, with names that sent my head spinning because I realized, once again, that I do not completely understand who is who amongst the Hindu gods. I did buy a small idol of Saraswati. Manjula helped me finagle a really reasonable price. Here she is in my house!