Hinduism

Navarathri and Vijesdasami

Dasara is celebrated allover India with a lot of fanfare and religious fervor. A religious as well as a social festival, Dasara is an occasion for pujas and festivities like music, dance and cultural programmes. In Southern India, especially in Tamilnadu, Dasara is celebrated as Navarathiri.

Navarathiri :
A Religious Festival

The period of nine days and nights when Goddess Durga fought the Asura is celebrated as Navarathiri in Tamilnadu. The Goddess is worshipped during these nine days and nights as it signifies the fight of the good over evil.

Goddess Durga is considered as the personification of courage, strength, and power and praying to the goddess, helps one to be blessed with all these qualities especially during Dasara.

The Goddess is worshipped in all her innumerable forms.

Special pujas are performed for the Goddess at home and in temples during Navarathiri. In the temples, the Goddess is dressed in different forms during these days like Annapoorani/Gajalakshmi/Durga/Meenakshi/Tripurasundari and so on. Processions of the idols of the Goddess are also taken around the adjoining areas of the temple.

Married ladies pray to the Goddess for the well-being of the family and children by performing pujas and reciting Lalitha Sahasranamam.

Community prayers are conducted at various temples and at other places of worship. Pujas are performed for the well-being of the community and for the nation.

The last three days of Navarathiri is a period of frenzied pujas.

Ayudha Pooja

In commercial organizations, business houses, shops and establishments the eighth or ninth day is celebrated as Ayudha Pooja. The entire place is cleaned and given a new look. All the machines, equipment, tools etc. that are used in the organization are cleaned and smeared with sandalwood paste (Chandanam) and vermilion (KumKum) and adorned with flowers.

The accounts books, other important documents are brought and kept in the puja place. Pujas are performed to the Goddess invariably by a priest who prays for the growth and prosperity of the organization.

Offerings of fruits, sweets, rice flakes (pori), jaggery is made to the Goddess and is distributed to everyone as Prasadam.

Saraswathi Puja

In Hindu homes the eighth day or Navami prayers are offered to Goddess Saraswathi, the Goddess of learning, seeking knowledge.

Books of children and youngsters as well as musical instruments are placed before the Goddess on that day and pujas performed.

Hindus believe that the Goddess resides in books, in all forms of reading/learning material as also in musical instruments. Saraswathi is said to be a lover of music. The placing of these items in worship is therefore a sign of respect to those forms that impart knowledge to us.

Vijesdasami

The tenth day i.e., Dasami is considered a day of victory as it signifies the day Sakthi slays the demon. It signifies the victory of good over evil. Vijesdasami is a day to begin new ventures, be it business or education etc. as it is an auspicious day and assures one of success.

On Vijesdasami, toddlers are taught their first alphabet and some of them are admitted to school on this day to commence their formal education. Formal training in music, dance and other art forms are invariably commenced only on Vijesdasami.

Vijesdasami is also the day to honour one’s teacher.

Golu

Golu means display. Navarathiri in Tamilnadu is celebrated with colour, gaiety and splendor in Hindu homes. The Golu is arranged on the Mahalaya Amavasya - the New moon day. The Golu lasts for 10 days till Vijesdasami, when the idols are once again packed with care and sent to the attic where they reside for the entire year till the next Golu.

Idols of Hindu gods, goddesses, sages, poets, mythological characters, war heroes, national leaders, animals, etc are displayed on a row of steps called Golu Padi. The number of steps on which the dolls are arranged are usually in odd numbers ranging from 5 onwards. Idols are generally not arranged in three steps are as it is not considered auspicious.

Wooden steps are used for Golu Padis. Sometimes a makeshift Golu Padi is constructed with carton/wooden boxes etc.

The Golu Padi is then covered with white cloth (as it forms a good background for the colorful idols) and decorated with paper flowers and other decorations. The idols are then arranged on this Golu

Padi

The place of the Golu is decorated with colorful lights, serial lamps, festoons and other decorations. Rangolis (colorful patterns with colourful powders) and floral rangolis are also drawn in front of the Golu.

Theme Golus are also becoming popular. Golus of various temples, temple rituals, dance forms, national integration, depiction of the Hindu epics like Ramayanam, Mahabharatham, Sivapuranam, Hindu Mythology are some of the very popular themes.

There will also be a park depicting children playing, an animals park, a temple atop a hill, a river or a pond, a small town with beautiful houses, streets, markets etc. A shop selling kitchen utensils, groceries, fruits and vegetables owned by an elderly couple who are referred to as Chettiar and Chettichi will definitely have a place in the Golu.

Modern themes like a cricket field with the players also have found their way into the traditional Golu.

The idols are usually made of clay, paper mache, and wood. Plastic dolls are also now added to the Golu. Women and children let loose their power of imagination and use all their creative skills in making the Golu innovative and compete with their neighbours in beautifying it. The men folk also give a helping hand.

Women in their rustling Kancheepuram Pattu Pudavais (Silk saris), dazzling gold and diamond jewellery and fragrant jasmines adorning their beautiful black hair (in Tamilnadu a proper festive dressing is incomplete without a string of jasmine flowers in the hair) visit their friends and relatives in the evening inviting them to visit their house and receive Thambulam. This invitation is accorded by offering KumKum (vermilion).

The Hindu Association of Lake House will be holding its annual Saraswati Pooja festival today at the All Ceylon Hindu Congress Hall from 9.30 a.m. to 12.30 p.m. The Chairman of Lake House Mr. Bandula Padmakumara will be the Chief Guest. The Association will be felicitating Prof. Chandrasekaram today. There will be cultural events too.