Festive fervour: Colourful rituals

Even with diverse cultures across the country, the festive fervour remains undeterred. Navratri is no different — every community comes together to worship Goddess Durga during these nine nights. Hyderabad displays its multi-ethnicity in true spirit.

There are many rituals the Marwari community follow. “For these nine days of festivity, we offer pooja for our Kul Devi Mata, which has been our tradition for the last 100 years or so. From the first day itself, we clean the place and start puja with kumkum and archana. These nine days are auspicious, and on the eighth or ninth day, we feed nine young girls with prasad, and give them gifts,” says Archana Malani, of Deepshikha Mahila Club.

Adding more to the ritualistic procedures that the Marwari community follow during Navratri, Sunita Surana says, “Puja is auspicious and without cleaning the entire house or the mandir, it can’t happen. So, after cleaning the house, we place the kalash and coconut in front of Goddess Durga, and then the pooja begins. For the Jain community amongst the Marwaris, Ashtami is the most important day, when we offer prasad, made from jaggery and dalia called Lapsi, to the Goddess.” Adding another unique custom that their family follows, she explains, “On Ashtami, our entire family gathers for lunch. We divide ourselves into three different groups — the men, daughters-in-law, and daughters, and eat food together from three big thalis, sitting on small stools (chauki).”

Another unique tradition which Anita Soni follows is that she breaks her fast on Ashtami, and during these nine days, she worships nine different forms of Goddess Durga.

Madhu Jain points out, “Being a colourful festival, everyone follows different customs. For us, the festival is incomplete without Mata ki Chowki, where people come together to perform aarti and sing bhajanas. We go into a trance and feel the divine power blessing us.” But no festivity is complete without your near and dear ones, feels Reema Agarwal. “Even if we observe fast the whole day, we make it a point to deck up in the evening and go out for dandiya and garba with the girl gang.”