\|/ Happy Navaratri \|/ - Page 3

Edited by sukhi... - 11 years ago

Originally posted by: .Vrish.

Please do, and if you can, toss in some stuff about Mahalaya as well - kalkey hobey.

golu or Gomba Habba in kannada ..Means festival of dolls.
The main dolls are made of wood. Special dolls only available in /Tirupathi We call them as MARAPATCHI BOMMAI .
The wood has medicinal properties and some are made of  Rakta Chandan or red chandan.
When a girl gets married she is presented with a pair a male and female bommai or doll.
They represent Shiv and Parvati.
They are the center of a Gollu
A day before the Gollu is kept,  the two wooden dolls are bathed and dressed in full grand clothes. In our house we use color paper,. some use actual silk cloth too.
The number of steps are always odd numbers .. 1,3,5 7 etc
Most of the dolls are made of clay.. Each year we add to the collection by buying one or a set of dolls.
The dolls vary from gods to elaborate wedding scenes.
We also take the effort to make a small garden days earlier with sprouts used as grass. tiny plastic dolls or match sticks made to look like dolls etc.
We also have elaborate rangolis on all the 9 days.
A kalash is also placed.
Prasad is made twice. Once in the morning and again in the evening.
9 days 9 varieties of prasad is made.
After vijayadashami, the wooden or marapachi is removed and placed in sleeping position. Resting them after ten days of standing up.
Edited by jayvenk - 11 years ago

Vrish,