Navratri
is here and the state of Goa is dancing to the beats of Dandiya Raas as the Gujarati community in Goa is
celebrating their biggest festival. The women are beautifully dressed in their
fashionable chaniya cholis and sarees, religious rituals are carried out and
they the community gathers together to dance the Dandiya Raas. As a number of
Gujarati families have been living in Goa for generations, these traditions of
the nine-day festival are followed here with the same devotion that they would
have been observed with in their home state.
Kiran Solanki has been living in Miramar
since her marriage 17 years ago. Living with her family here, she feels that
every Gujarati is openly welcomed in Goa and the community is well knitted with
unity and love. “We have a very energetic community in Goa that has programs
throughout the year to follow traditions and have fun. The Navratri
celebrations involve Garba and Dandiya Raas and it is a joy to see everyone
dressed in traditional attire and taking to the floor. The crowd is of
different age groups and it is one of the biggest festivals that we look
forward to,” says Kiran.
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The women most certainly take their fashion seriously. “Many of
us travel to Baroda and Rajkot for shopping, on the lookout for the latest
styles in clothes and jewellery. We also ask our relatives to send us what we
need if we can’t travel to Gujarat. Also, now you get everything online, so
many of the women living in Goa shop online,” adds Kiran, a mother of two.
The Parekh family from Caranzalem have been living in Goa for
the last 150 years, while Sangeeta Parekh herself has been here for the last 30
years. Her husband’s family has settled in Goa while her parents live in Baroda.
“Navratri is celebrated over nine days and it is fun to see so many different
ways of dancing by different groups. Every day we do the bhajan and aarti in
the evening at 6:30pm, which is then followed by Garba and Dandiya Raas which
starts at 9:30pm and goes on till 11:30pm. On the eighth day of the festival,
we do the Navchandi Havan from 8:30am to 4:30pm. The festivities culminate into
Dandiya Masti,” says Sangeeta.
Many Gujaratis who are living in Goa don’t travel to Gujarat
during Navratri because they have the celebrations and rituals in Goa itself.
“Each home has to have a Matki and Akhand Diya which together is known as
Garbo. The Akhand Diya should be kept aflame for all the nine days of
Navratri,” explains Sangeeta.
The
53-year-old Panjim Gujarati Yuvak Mandal in Panjim currently has over 400
members, and celebrates Navratri at the Mahalaxmi Temple every year. Their
grand celebration, an All Goa Dance competition titled Dandiya Masti will be
held by the committee at Taleigao Community Centre on October 5, 2017 with
dance competitions that receive many dance groups across Goa. The competitions
will have prizes for Dandiya King, Dandiya Queen, Dandiya Prince, Dandiya
Princess, Dandiya Boy and Dandiya Girl. Interestingly, many Goan youngsters are
showing keen interest in these dance forms and are especially getting trained
through dance classes. It is never too late to pick up Dandiyas sticks and
start practising the routine of Dandiya Raas.
