Navratri Festival

The Gujurati Community celebrated Navratri with song and garba dance at Nelson College for Girls Hall over the weekend of 20-22 October 2023.

Navaratri[a] is an annual Hindu festival observed in honour of the goddess Durga, an aspect of Adi Parashakti, the supreme goddess. It spans over nine nights (and ten days), first in the month of Chaitra (March/April of the Gregorian calendar), and again in the month of Ashvin (September–October).

“This festival is celebrated every year by gujarati community in high spirit and everyone look forward to this event every year so it was very important that community has a platform to celebrate it. It also allows the next generation to be aware of their tradition / culture.”

Lot of young individuals from community learn about Garba dance as we provided free lessons to them and they actually performed at those three days. Everyone taken part of worshipping goddess durga, which spread awareness of the culture and many wider community members visited the event and connected with each other.

Karolina was fabulous. We have had a huge support from her as she helped co-ordinate the event and let us know about various parts of hosting the events. She kindly arranged for a photographer to visit the event for photos. Ishan Patel

Attendance: 250

Photography - Kat Beyle www.wiphala.co.nz