YORKTON — It was two nights of celebration as the Gujarati Community Association of Yorkton held Navratri (Garba 2025).
The event celebrated the folk dance festival of the Gujarati community, (representing those from Gujarat a western state in India), organized by GCAY, explained association president Purvish Patel.
Navratri is a Hindu festival which typically spans nine nights and is celebrated every year in the autumn, said Patel, who added in Yorkton it is celebrated over two nights.
The Hindu festival is observed in honour of the goddess Durga, an aspect of Adi Parashakti, the supreme goddess. According to Wikipedia; “Durga is one of the most important goddesses in Hinduism, regarded as a principal aspect of the supreme goddess. Associated with protection, strength, motherhood, destruction, and wars, her mythology centers around combating evils and demonic forces that threaten peace, dharma and cosmic order, representing the power of good over evil.”
The “Garba is a form of Circle dance and Social dance form originating in Gujarat, and played across the Gujarati diaspora worldwide. Garba is traditionally danced as part of the annual Hindu festival of Navratri (or "Nine Nights"), held in celebration of Amba Mata, or the primordial mother. Typically, at the end of each Navratri night of dance, the community also plays raas, a sibling circle-dance form, in which players hold a stick in each hand and tap out a rhythm with a partner. Everyone is invited to join garba and raas, and people of all ages dance together. Traditionally garba is played around an earthen pot with holes on the sides, revealing a flame inside (a symbol of the jiva or soul inside the womb). Alternatively, a picture or statue of the Hindu goddess Amba, an incarnation of Durga, may be placed in the center of the circle (as was the case in Yorkton). When there are large numbers of participants, they make concentric circles to form rings around the object of veneration.”
Patel said the event was expected to attract some 350 each night to the National Convention Room in the Gallagher Centre, Yorkton.
