Navratri Festival

The kids had two days off of school this week because of the Navratri festival.  I also had David home one day from school and then the next day I had three of them staying home because they are fighting miserable colds.  Obviously, blogging is a little bit trickier when the Fab Four are home all day! :)  Thanks for sticking with me!

I did a little on-line research about Navratri and found out that 'Nav' means 'nine' and 'ratri' means 'night'. Thus, 'Navratri' means 'nine nights'. There are many legends attached to the conception of Navratri like all Indian festivals. All of them are related to Goddess Shakti (Hindu Mother Goddess) and her various forms. It is one of the most celebrated festivals on the Hindu calendar!

We were lucky enough to be invited to share in this festival by Ram (one of the people on Matt's team.)  Ram and his wife live with Ram's parents in a two bedroom apartment in the city.  Ram also invited another lady that he and Matt work with named Rishika & she brought along her nine year old son, Adi.  They told us all about their gods & who & what they were celebrating during Navratri.  Ram's Mom made us an amazing Indian meal followed by Indian "sweets" and authentic "filtered coffee". 

I especially enjoyed the drive to Ram's house as we were able to see how the local Indian people decorate for the Festival.

I snapped this picture as we went whizzing by in our car but hopefully you can still see that this woman sitting on the sidewalk is hand stringing flowers together to make a garland.

As we continued to drive through town we would see pretty yellow flower garlands like this hung up all over town.  On store fronts, homes, cars, even in peoples hair!

 You can see the garland hanging off the two black motor scooters, the banana leaves at the entrance & the flower garland display on the signage.

I loved this guys Jazzy Jeans & that he's got his handlebars decked

out with banana leaves.

More banana leaves & garlands

While we were at Ram's house we got to talking about coconut.  They use it in a lot of dishes here & the kids are obsessed with them!  We recently bought a few and brought them home to check them out.  You know, up close & personal like.  I tell you what - Those things were like Fort Knox.  Matt beat the snot out of those suckers, in fact, I think at one point he even tried hacking at it with a screwdriver!  What we ended up with was a mangled coconut with the brown straw-like fibers pointing in all directions (kinda looked like my bedhead hair in the morning!) and a 1/2 dollar size hole in the side of it.  David enjoyed the coconut milk inside.  I don't know that anyone else really enjoyed it all that much!?  

Ram's wife thought all of this was SOOOOO FUNNY!!  So, she went into the kitchen, brought out a HUGE knife and a coconut & proceeded to show us how open a coconut.  Thank God for coconut lessons!  Up to that point, if Matt and I were ever stranded on a desert island - We would have croaked!!  Yep.  Matt's coconut cracking skills....STINK!  Well, they DID up until she showed us what to do.

Coconut Lesson

Ram's Mother made the most amazing rice I've ever eaten.  Literally.  One of the secret ingredients...Coconut!!  (Cristina, when you coming to visit!?  You'll think you've died and gone to Coconut Heaven!)

Here we are posing in front of their altar of various gods.  It was quite overwhelming listening to them talk about the gods and who does what etc.  I don't know how they keep them all straight!

They have had some of these gods since they were children!  They rearrange their living room to accommodate this altar.  It was HUGE!!!

I found this god fascinating.  As the story goes, he is over 40 years old.  Made out of paper mache & the artist that made him was BLIND!! 

The colors were so vibrant.  Truly gorgeous and mind-blowing that most of them are made out of mud!  WOW! 

The kids playing a rambunctious game of UNO with Adi in one of the bedrooms.

Although it's blurry (Mikey took the picture) I love this picture of me & Ram's wife.  We instantly shared a connection.  She was an easy laugher (gotta love that!)  Such a sweet girl.  I love her already!   

Again, Mikey behind the camera so a bit blurry but Ram & Matt sipping coffee & talking.

The owners of this house went "all out" with their decorating.  Loved the little flags like you would see flying at a car dealership at home!  Competed by flower-sparkly garland & banana leaves.  They were definitely in the Navratri Spirit!

 Even the simplest of accommodations seemed to be in the

holiday spirit as they've got their banana leaves

and garland decorations flying too.

Ram's Mom was so sweet with the kids.  She loved being with them.  It was really adorable.  Very kind woman & a GREAT cook!

I felt really honored to spend such an important holiday with their family.  I look forward to reciprocating and having them join us during a special Holiday time for us - Christmas!  JESUS is my reason for celebrating during the Christmas season & I can't wait to share it with them!  ox  Jenny from the B'Block