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All across India and in Indian diaspora communities around the world, the ancient Hindu festival Navaratri begins on the first full moon of autumn, just after the monsoon season ends. Sending the people’s love to goddesses Durga, Lakshmi and Saraswati, Navaratri is a joyous nine-day-long celebration — this year from Oct. 3-12 — of the divine feminine in all its incarnations. In southernmost India, the people of Tamil Nadu welcome guests to their homes by lighting special lamps and making kolam rangoli (special floor drawings made from colored flour). Colorful kolu or golu (gods and goddesses) are sculpted from marble, wood and clay in the shape of idols and toys and arrayed in homes, businesses and temples in displays ranging from simple to quite complex. Families and friends visit each other, exchanging sweet treats, fresh flowers and gifts, and participating in garba dancing, which entails moving in concentric circles around the garba flame representing the light of Devi, the mother goddess of India.
