Navratri which literary means ‘Nav’ as nine and ‘ratri’ as
night is an Indian festival observed over a period of nine nights, the festival
is famous almost throughout the country for its religious and social
importance. In this nine-night long festival of Navratri the supreme female
cosmic power or Goddess Shakti is worshipped in her variously manifested forms
as Durga, Laxmi and Saraswati. The festival signifies power, wealth, prosperity
and knowledge. Both Mahishasura and Ravan are demons and their execution is a
symbol of the destruction of the evil that resides within our mind. Navaratri
represents the triumph of good over evil. During Navratri, the Rasa (dance of
joy) of Shree Krishna and the Gopis is also enacted. This dance symbolizes the
dance of Realisation which represents the joy and happiness of the mind that
becomes purer and calmer due to a greater understanding of the nature of the
Inner Self. People of Gujarat in Navratri festival play dandiya and perform
some folk dances. Garba is also widely entertained and enjoyed both by the
residents and arrivals.
Now navratri is not just worshiping goddess and playing
garba,but it has reached to another level where a lot of factors has
either enhanced it or diminished it. One
such factor I here talk about is Media that how brands through media promote
themselves. These are pictures of a mobile carrier ads during navratri offering
a facility to fly to Ambaji temple in a helicopter.
Another is TV ad of a different mobile carrier depicting dusherra in their advertisment.
and an adhensive brand showing two angry elephants who suddenly starts plaving dandiya forgetting their anger.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qbiiUOABg8
not just product brands but celebrities also promote themselves as a brand on these navratri events and also promote their movie.
Artist from music industry also perfom live
on navratri like
Falguni Pathak singing and people doing garba on it.
Not just this but the cultural aspect is also considered like navratri is shown in movies and daily soaps to promote this festival. Movies like kai po chee.. , goliyoon ki raas leela: ramleela and others have promoted this festival and daily soap like tarak mehta ka oolta chashma are in it too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=wNVIrezdJHI
But navratri celebrated earlier and now has a vast difference now its not just about celebrations. The event managers of such garba events reward the winner with best attire or best dance moves. For which people spend almost equal amount of winnig price on borrowing such garments or learning different dance moves which are not even inspired from the original dance form. In Garba the music used to be from playing dhol but now advanced music instruments have been used and also the masala from bollywood songs are played from this it seems that the cultural aspect is dimishing slowly.
A video showing bollywood song sbeing played
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=wNVIrezdJHI
