Navratri / Durga Puja

India is coming to the end of this year's Navratri festival, also known as Durga Puja. This is another 10-day (nine-night, which is what "Navratri" means in Sanskrit) festival that ends with the immersion of the idols in a local body of water. I'll refer you to Wikipedia for more details. Clearly I'm going to need to become more familiar with major Hindu gods and their stories.

While there are many "neighborhood" festival tents are set up all over Vapi, there are three BIG venues (at least) featuring ear-splitting rock-concert sound systems, spot lights, and well-lit stages and grounds that require portable industrial generators to power everything.

The Bengalis (from West Bengal, Calcutta's state) consider themselves to be the keeper of Indian culture. Durga Puja is Calcutta's major festival, and fuses religion and classical culture.

This is the outside of the tent for Durga Puja. I don't know where India gets so many marigolds.
Usually in the markets you just see marigolds strung together and you can purchase a string or two.
Right now they are being sold by the kilo.

The inside of the tent and the dais where the important festival gods are placed.

A closer view of Durga. She has 10 arms and 10 weapons to slay the 10 incarnations of evil.

In the evening there was a cultural presentation with lots of music and dancing. Here are small snippets of two dances.

Afterwards (about 10:30 PM), we walked to the other end of town for the Rotary Club's Navratri celebration. It featured live heart-thumping music (literally -- the sound waves were assaulting my chest) and vigorous dancing. This is apparently the Gujarati version of the festival, and the religious aspects were minimal -- a small (maybe 2 meters square) tent with a small idol off to one side.

We had seats in the "VIP Sofa Section".

The dancing was in a completely different style -- Gujarati garba dance in dazzling tiered dresses (both men and women).

By the time we walked back home (at midnight), we had walked 6 or 7 km for the evening! It's a challenge to walk at night along crowded dusty roads, but it is cooler than walking during the day. In the market area, there are more people out in the evening than during the day -- most shops are open until about 10 PM.