Three days Navratri Festival in Metro Vancouver
Surrey, BC, Canada witnessed the most dhamakedaar jam packed and most liked Garba Event over the thanksgiving long weekend. A large number of Metro Vancouver Indian community members celebrated Navratri festival in Surrey, BC, Canada.
Come fall and the whole world starts getting into festive mode; be it Thanksgiving, Halloween, or Christmas. Besides these holidays the months from September to November also witness a chronology of Hindu festivals that are marked with religious worship, fasting, feasting and celebrations.
This nine day festival of Navratri is celebrated in diverse style all over India. Some people fast rigorously, some people feast in this festivities and worship and celebrate with family and friends.
In Gujarat this festival gains its significance for ‘Garba’ One of the major attractions of this festival is ‘playing’ Garba for nine nights around the statues or pictures of various Goddesses and also around Garbo, a decorated mud pot placed with a lamp burning inside it. Initially Garba was played with folk songs being sung in the background to worship the Goddess. Over the centuries this art of group dance has become a cultural and exciting identity associated with Navratri.
When it comes to having festive fun Vancouverits are always beaming with excitement. Mr. Ajay Rana of The Canadian Desi Arts and Cultural Club organized a memorable event for three days from 7th to 9th of October (Thanksgiving weekend) in Surrey making it feasible for all the people of Indian origin and Indian expats to experience and enjoy this extremely lively, colorful, musical, and shimmering event of Garba Nights. On seventh October this event was celebrated at Mirage Banquet Hall and on the 8th and 9th of October it was celebrated at Bollywood Banquet Hall. The tickets were quite economical at the rate of $15.00 which even included food coupons. The food that was served was finger-licking delicious with popular items such as Vada Paav, Chaat, Rosogulla,etc.
The organizer of Raas Garba Ramzat 2022 Ajay Rana said “when we come from India as a new immigrant we bring the little India inside us and we get busy in day to day work and work which makes it difficult to provide cultural environment that we want to give to our kids”. He wanted to put his efforts to create a cultural platform where Indian cultural heritage and traditions could be celebrated. Hence he formed the Canadian Desi Arts & Cultural Club.
The thoughtful aspect was that the tickets for children under 10 were free, the parents could expose their children to their native cultural event and understand what Garba is all about without digging deep into their pockets. It was over all a very affordable event for the whole family. The Garba was played at the rhythm of scintillating live band performed by talented and artistic folk singers invited all the way from Gujarat. They played traditional songs along with Bollywood songs for the event.
Since Indian diaspora is expanding in Metro Vancouver and in BC, this kind of events are essential to cater to the needs of people of Indian origin willing to enjoy their culture and traditions, and also willing to expose them to the next generation in a fun and meaningful way.
“It was a well organized event, people kept dancing for hours. The Indian community in Vancouver is growing and many more such large scale events are needed,” said Neeraj Kumar who was one of the Sponsors of the event.
The organizers are already looking forward to next year’s event and their goal is to bring even a bigger and better Garba event in 2023.
Raas Garba Ramzat 2022 was supported by many local businesses and community partners including India Cultural Association (ICA) of Vancouver.
Drone Video below from the largest Garba event at Vadodara, Gujarat, India capturing the colorful festival went viral on Twitter.
#WATCH | Gujarat: Devotees in large numbers play Garba in Vadodara Navratri festival VNF on the fifth day of Navratri in Vadodara (30.09)
— ANI (@ANI) October 1, 2022
(Video Source: VNF) pic.twitter.com/OJtwbNY5bd
