Navarathiri 2012 @The Sakthirajans
Navarathiri, the time to celebrate The Divine Mothers.
Traditions differ in the various parts of our country, but one thing they all have common is the festive beauty and the gathering of friends and family.
Traditions need to be continued, but for continum they need to be adapted, enhanced, innovated to suite the region and surroundings.
Hence was born in the humblest beginnings, The Navarathiri Traditions @The Sakthirajans, a beautiful mix of modern US and tradition.
Growing up in India, Navarathiri has always been a big part of our family. Something we all used to look forward to. The daily sundal hunt, the few goodies we get, and most of all, the fun we had going around with friends and cousins all decked up.
As my friend, aptly reminiscints, "Navarathiri is the Indian Halloween". Isnt it?
Little girls all decked up in colorful pavadais, bangles jingling and golusu ringing their fast steps..Beautiful sweet memories...
And into the second year of the Navarathiri Celebrations, this time I wanted to do Navarathiri with a little splendor, and hook my son into this. With girls, it would be a little easy to get them into Navarathiri spirit, for which girl wouldn't love a reason to get dressed and get goodies.? But boys?Need a different strategy.
So, my main strategy for this year was,
How to package and market to sell Navarathiri to a 5 year old Super Hero, not losing the Navarathiri feel?
How do I share the festivity with all family, scattered in different continents?
I was inspired enough, with pinterest crafts, and my hands were itching to try out a few, giving them an Indian touch.
So the other thing, I decided this year was, ALL the decorations need to be handmade and unique. If not all, I did achieve most, I should say.
So the first thing that was done, was the invitation.
I wasn't satisfied with the standard Name-Place-Date-Time emails,
and couldn't find any online cards Indian themed.
I wanted something unique, exactly capturing my passion for Navarathiri.
Hence I made my own, using one of the clicks from Last years celebrations. As I gazed into the serene beauty of Goddess Saraswathi, the invite flowed out naturally.
Thus the e-invite was created.
Then, I had to introduce the golu inviting tradition, to my son. And so I
decided to walk around and invite friends within walking distance. For this, I created the Vethalai shaped invite, from patterened scrap book paper, with the invitation message printed on the inside,
which were offered to friends, inviting them for the golu.
Next came the decorations.
I have always been intrigued with the wreaths and its symbolisms.
So this year, I gave it a Indian twist n adorned the door, welcoming the Festival season.
This was the first I made. (
blog entry)
I got so carried off with, making paper diyas that, I had made so many of them and had to find a use for these.
The empty walls were inviting, and quickly the diyas "lighted" up the bare walls, along with the little glittery kolams I had made in transperancy sheets.
Next was the coffee filter lanterns.
This was totally inspired by the pinterest coffee filter board.
I took a bunch of white coffee filters, dyed it with pink/red/orange colors(single, multi) and ruffled them into the lanterns.
Used small cylinders cut from toilet rolls as the center.
As a finishing touch, Utra thin LED lights were entwined and set in flashing mode.
The soft colors and the lights, enhanced the beauty and added to the festive atmosphere.
I had pink polyester petals, from last year, and I just love the color and feel and so wanted to use it, and an idea struck.
An unused bowl, and small paper cups and glue gun the petals now blooomed into pretty flowers to serve as pedestals to the Goddesses and adorn my Golu.
Put in ittle LED tea lights, and they glowed like pink stars.
A totally unplanned decoration, this turned out to be the star of the Golu, with all liking this.
With a sudden burst if ideas, I was able to make a bunch of tissue paper flowers, which I fondly call, "a distant cousin of samandhi poo", to adorn the Golu padis.
Seeing me so excited and making so many things,
My son, was super excited
and said he wanted to keep his golu too.
He wanted 3 little pigs and dinosaurs.
Hence 2 little parks were created.
Mommy and son had fun, making the hay house, stick house, and for the brick house we used the bird house he had crafted in an art class.
The 3 little pigs were made from clay moulds & air dry clay, and he colored them.
For the dinosour park, I used aluminum trays as base, and had soil covering them, with a small "jungle" from sprouts.
Nikhil, made a story in this park, with the 3 big bad dinosaurs creating havoc, and the super hero leader dinosaur fighting and defeating them.
The little dinos, had their heads buried in the sand, scared of the bad dinos :-)
Now to the main attraction, the golu.
The first padi, had the dasavatharam set, along with Krishna @various stages of life.
This year, Amma and Appa presented my Golu, with Durga-Lakshmi-Saraswathi Vigrahams, the perfect addition to our Golu padi.
This was the second padi.
The third one, is Nikhils favorite padi, with Baby Ganesha & Baby Hanuman.
He even kept them with reverence, with his hands.
Almost all the friends made it our Golu with their family and accepted our Vethalai pakku.
And we even started our new tradition of, Vethalai Pakku Thamboolam for boys.
For Saraswathi Pooja, Goddess Saraswathi had a throne green silk throne
fanned out from a New saree, which we offer to the Goddess to bless.
It was a fulfilling and satisfying Saraswathi pooja.
The strategy of inviting all family to our Golu?
Yes, I achieved it.
I was able to vividly captured, the Golu step by step and posted on my FB page, and everyone in family and friends enjoyed my Golu and accepted my e-thamboolam.
The strategy of getting the 5 year old involved? It really paid off.
Every morning, as soon as he woke up, my 5 year old, came and played with the 2 parks.
He became genuinely interested in the story Dasavatharams and now can recite the 10 avatharams and the story of Matsya, Koorma and Varaha avatharams
He sat through all the prayers and is looking forward for the next year's Navarathiri, already giving me ideas for the parks.
Nikhil was so involved with the Dasavatharams, and had difficulty
explaining to him, how Balarama & Krishna, existed at the same time
as borthers & Vishnu's avatharams.
Wasnt baby Krishna scared of the snake on top of him, when he woke up from sleep?, he quipped on observing the bommai of Vasudeva carrying Krishna in a basket.
And many many more such questions.....
Summing it all up, The Navarathiri 2012 @The Sakthirajans, turned out to be a very heart warming, fulfilling celebration.
I am still in the Navarathiri mood, that there are still a few decorations hanging around in the house..
:-)
