It is Golu time and we have managed to arrange a 7 step golu here in a very short time. Golu has always been my most favorite festival season while growing up. My parents used to create very elaborate golu scenes and themes to add to the store bought dolls in their displays. My mom would begin the preparation for golu weeks ahead of time, and it was a much awaited occasion every year, especially because the schools were out for 10days in as 'puja holidays', and we had all the free time to indulge in the celebrations. Mom used to decorate me and my sibs in Krishna or Gopi costume and send us out to our neighbors home to extend our personal invitation to them to visit our golu. We then returned the favor by visiting the neighbors golu along with our friends, enjoying tons of sundal and other snacks that were offered in each of their homes. I miss those days!! In Bangalore, golu does not have the same fervor as that of Chennai. I am told that Mysore Dussehara celebrations is the best in the entire country. We will get a chance to taste those celebrations this week. My children are especially excited about seeing the royal jumbo procession in the Mysore Palace.
Golu is very popular festival in the southern India, primarily amongst brahmins. The tradition is that people display dolls and figurines artistically in an odd number of steps and celebrate it for 9 days during the festival of Navrathri. ('nav' means -9 and 'rathri' means night). It is primarily a celebration of women and children, although I used to invite the entire family to come over for a visit and for some snacks / dinner every year. It is an occasion to get the friends and families together, and I have enjoyed getting the men and boys over to share the fun. Shopping for small mementoes to be given away to the visitors of our golu, along with sundal and vethalai paaku(betel leaves and areca nut) is yet another elaborate event of golu for us that we thoroughly enjoy doing.
In the US, I displayed a 9 step golu of dolls I had collected over close to two decades. Creating the steps was always a fun challenge for me in the US. I used to come up with some creative ideas (borrowed from my mom's that I have seen her do while growing up) of using plastic boxes, cartons, telephone directories and such to create all the 9 steps. But here, I bought a ready-made golu stand made of steel to make it easier on ourselves. One other reason is that we had no boxes to create the steps, lol. My golu dolls are in the storage back in the US. SO, I couldn't resist purchasing brand new ones for our celebration here. After all, I AM in India, and what better way to celebrate it and show my children all the festivities here, LOL.
I had tremendous fun shopping for dolls with both my kids in Malleswaram 8th cross, Bangalore, meeting some fun folks along the way, chitchatting about the cost of dolls and comparing the prices with that of Chennai ones. Malleswaram has quite a few Tamilians, btw :-). My kids selected the dolls and arrangements for our golu this year which added to our shopping fun. And my daughter maintains all the rituals of golu celebrations at home by lighting the lamps and such. I am not a religious person, and I try to keep the traditions I am familiar with alive for my children to enjoy, learn from and have fun with it more than in the religious sense. We also discuss the Hindu mythology a lot around this time of the year.
We have no furniture in our home as our shipment is further delayed. BUT we have golu, and we are expecting folks over this week to visit our golu. Our next challenge is to manage the food, snacks and seating for those families with our limited supply of dishes and kitchen items and 4 chairs :-). Of course, there is always the floor and Indian mats for seating, and plates/bowls combo for eating:-).
It is going to be a memorable celebration for sure. I am just glad that I am able to have the golu celebration despite many setbacks. My children are enjoying this so much. My daughter had an elaborate mehndhi/henna designs made on both her hands as part of the golu celebrations. Of course, that will have to be a separate post for another day, lol.
And our broadband works, which of course is the reason I am able to blog at this hour:-)).
Happy Navrathri!
I am adding a few links about Navrathri for anyone interested.
Navrathri wiki article
Golu wiki
Few pics:
The entire golu
First step of kalasam, Gods and Goddesses
Second step: The Dasavathara dolls (10 avatars of Vishnu)
Third step: Krishna and Gopikas, dancers, and of course Elephant face God-Vinayaka made of clay
4th: Courtallam Waterfalls and bathing folks; merchants; Karthigai pengal with 6 murugan babies.
5th: Hindu wedding ceremony and party
6th and 7th: Amman Goddess mugam (face) mounted on coconut; park scenes
And very eco friendly idea by ds to reuse the styrofoam packing that came with our microwave glass plate as a fruit tray display :-)
I'm back with all my questions, Subadra! lol
ReplyDeleteIn that first picture, are those wallplugs to the right of the display? They seem peculiarly plentiful, and in such an odd configuration. Why is that?
Also, who is the god (?) on the topmost tier, the one who looks like a brown honeypot, with 4 arms and one set are held over his head? He also has a lot of greenery on either side of him.
I LOVE those statues. The blue ones in particular are fabulous. Such wonderful colours.
Do you have a favourite recipe for sundal? Those are chickpeas, right? Looks delicious.
This is so interesting! It reminds me of setting up Nativity displays at Christmas, but on a much grander scale. Thank you for taking pictures of your display. I hope you have a lovely holiday!
ReplyDeletePeace and Laughter,
Cristina
Hi Sheila,
ReplyDeleteWelcome back:-)
The wall plugs have capabilities to handle both the euro and US plugs/pins..that is round pins and flat pins. The wall plugs are usually set on the walls spots based on where the stuff goes in a room...sort of roughly. This one has the telephone and cable tv sockets along with general pin purposes. This house is more modernized that way that it enables our mac laptops and such equipment to charge directly without having to resort to another outlet convertor to handle our flat pins. OH the voltage used here is 220V.
The God you are referring to is not actually a God. It is a figurine of a kalasam. Kalasam is a holy pot filled with water and a coconut placed on its mouth. Around the coconut, mango leaves are placed...but here there are two banana tree branches, again considered holy. Check more here the second part of the response explains more about kalasam http://www.ammas.com/ar/home.cfm?r=va&qid=155017&bid=0&topicid=9.
Thank you for your kind words. I love these dolls, and hope to pack them back and bring with me to the US to add to my existing collection there.
Yes, there are actually different types of sundals done with different pulses. My most favorite is with chickpeas. I soak the raw ones for 5hours and cook them in the pressure cooker. I season with little gingelly oil the following: mustard seeds, urid dhal, smaller amount of channa dhal, curry leaves, red chillies and fry brown. Then add the chickpeas and toss; add salt; and then sprinkle fresh coconut flakes before removing from the fire. I do not like the coconut flakes browned...The same recipe can be used for channa dhal sundal, and variety of other pulses. They are so rich in protein that I used these often in my cooking. Check for more varieties here http://fusion-rg.blogspot.com/2007/10/festivals-sundal-varieties.html
Thank you for visiting..hope to see you again:)
Subadra
Cristina,
ReplyDeleteWelcome back!
Yes, that is so right. It is so similar to the nativity display during christmas. I often wondered how this evolved in different cultures. Here, the nativity scenes are not that common during christmas, although I have seen it displayed in couple of my friends' homes. i wonder if it is anything to do with Catholics and such.
Thank you for visiting and commenting here! We had a great celebration actually, and managed to invite people too. It was a fun experience.
-Subadra