Mumbai: As the festival of Navratri comes closer, Mumbaikars have started preparations for devotion along with dance. Hard to keep the excitement, people have been participating in pre-navratri celebrations to perform garba before the actual nine-day long festival starts. A lot of garba classes have been thriving across the city before the festival.
Spanning a period of nine nights, the annual festival of Navratri, which literally means nine nights, is celebrated by Hindus in honour of Goddess Durga. The Ashvini Navratri celebrated during the Hindu month of Ashvin that falls around September or October is considered to be the most important out of the two Navratris observed by the community. The celebrations including worshipping the goddess for nine days through Gujarati fold dance garba.
With a large number of Gujarati population living in Mumbai, the festival has been one of the most awaited festivals in Mumbai as Mumbaikars wait throughout the year to perform garba at various garba celebrations organised across the city. However, the trend has changed in the last years as people have been actively participating in pre-navratri festivals organised to allow people to polish their garba steps before the actual festival starts.
On Saturday, a grand raas-garba evening was organised in South Mumbai’s Breach Candy area with around 500 people participating to perform garba in an air-conditioned hall. With less than two weeks left for the festival to start, people from different parts of South Mumbai joined the pre-navratri celebration to experience a quick recap of festive enjoyment before the start of festival.
Ritu Shah, the organiser of pre-navratri celebrations, said, “The event created a reverent atmosphere celebrating Gujarat’s rich culture and traditions. All the guests were dressed elegantly, making it feel as if Gujarat had come alive in Mumbai. The ambiance was filled with love and excitement as enthusiastic dancers played Garba and Dandiya, showcasing the beauty of Gujarat’s traditions. Even young children dressed beautifully and participated joyfully in the celebrations.”
As the festival starts from Thursday, the last weekend before the festival will see multiple pre-navratri celebrations in various parts of the city. While Borivali’s Kora Kendra Grounds will witness an evening filled with music and garba on Friday with Mor Bani Thangaat Kare pre-navratri, Rangilo Raas, which is scheduled on Saturday at the Golden Celebration Banquet Hall in Mulund featuring Nayan Solanki and NS Band, will also carry out fundraising to build an aanganwadi for kids in Palghar.
Thane, which has recently turned into a major Navratri destination for Mumbaikars in the last few years will witness Garba Glitz on Sunday with well-known dhol artist Naitik Nagda at the Ananta Banquet. The pre-navratri celebrations across the city will continue till the start of Navratri with the last event organised by Navraas Pre-Navratri at Borivali’s Kora Kendra Grounds on Wednesday. The event will feature singers like Saurabh Maheta, Nikita Waghela, Archana Mahajan and Dilesh Doshi.
Garbotsav: The Rhythm of Hope, organised at Opal Convention Centre in Borivali by Leo Club of Magnificient Mahavir Nagar and Lions Club of Mumbai Mahavir Nagar will also organise a fundraiser for the underprivileged.
“Garbotsav is Borivali`s biggest indoor pre-navratri fundraiser for Project Tishya which will not only be a grand affair but also a celebration of the hope of a brighter, more technologically skilled generation of the tribal students. Tishya, envisages to support 5,000 tribal students, across 10 ashram schools in Jawhar and Mokhada, for the next 5 years, to acquire digital skills through well-equipped computer labs and a skilled trainer,” said a member of the organising committee.