Celebrating Durga Festival in Sydney
It is that time of the year when Hindus rejoice and worship in the holy spirit of Goddess Durga and celebrate the Navratri festival. This nine days long festivity is celebrated by the Hindu community as they worship the deity of power and rejoice the mythological event of good defeating the evil. Indians spread across the world do not lag behind in celebrating this holy festival. In Australia as well, the Navratri festival is celebrated by dedicated devotees with full spirit. Sydney Shakti Temple, Cultural and Educational Centre celebrates this delightful festival and bring in the Hindu community closer in a foreign landscape.
The events of the festival lasts for nine days and brings together the Hindu community in a bond of love, joy and affection. The establishment where the Navratri festival is celebrated was founded in the year 2010 with the aim of fulfilling the traditional and cultural sentiments of Hindu community. Even though the Sydney Shakti Temple started out with the intention to give the Hindu community a place where they could ensure the longevity of their sacred religious practices, it eventually evolved to become more than just that. In recent times, this proud establishment is not just a place for the Hindu community to come and worship the sacred religion but also have an aim to give back to the community by acting as an official community service organisation.
Today the organisation have a permanent temple area along with a huge infrastructure where religious events and weddings are held. One of the highlighting event of the organisation is its enthusiastic celebration of Navratra or Navratri where distinctive Hindu communities living in Sydney, Australia come together and glorify the holy days of Goddess Durga. Speaking about the mythological events leading to the celebration of Navratra, one of the founders of Sydney Shakti Temple, Mr Dirran Krishnaraj says, “The main ideology of celebrating the holy days of Navratri is to rejoice and exult the triumph of evil. According to the Hindu scriptures, the evil spirit named Mahisasura was wreaking havoc on the realm of earth and no one could stop him as he was blessed by the grace of Lord Shiva. However, seeing the misery of the people suffering in earth from the tortures of Mahisasura, the Gods invoked and created Goddess Durga as the saviour of human race. Bestowed by the blessings of Gods and an incarnation of Goddess Parvati, Durga was born to defeat the evil spirit of Mahisasura and resemble the deity of power. Among the nine days of Navaratri, the first three days are dedicated to Maa Durga while the other six days are dedicated to worship her other forms of Goddess Lakshmi and Saraswati respectively. The main theme of this festival is to celebrate the deity of power and energy and rejoice the events of good triumphing over the evil.”
Mythological Events Leading to Navratri Celebration
The Sydney Shakti Temple have been celebrating this gleeful event of Navratri for over a year now. The nine days long Navratri event is filled with religious rituals and practices accompanied by the joyful celebration of dance, music, food and rich culture of the Hindu community. The festival of Navratri is an exuberant combination of fun and joy where all the individuals of Hindu community come together and celebrate the holy nine days. On the first day of the event, the Sydney Shakti Temple organises for a religious music programme where all the devotees rhyme and sing the holy recitations of Durga followed by the distribution of Prasad among all the attendees of the event. One of the main highlights of this Navaratri festival is the “Dandiya Nights” arranged by the organisation on the last three days of the festival. The open Dandiya Night session is not only enjoyed by the Hindu community but is celebrated and relished by the other communities of Australia as well. The Dandiya Nights organised by the Sydney Shakti Temple is aimed to bring together all the communities, whether be it the Hindu or Australian. Last year a roaring number of approximately hundreds of attendees where spotted celebrating this special event.
Speaking about the Dandiya Nights special, Mrs Aneeta Menon, Co-founder of the Sydney Shakti Temple says that, “It all depends upon us how we channel our actions towards bringing peace and joy among all the communities around the globe. The images of these three auspicious days of Dandiya Nights session is a perfect example of how all the communities should be, free from any ill thoughts and just rejoice the religious spirit of power and humanity. One of the significant aim of organising this three days of Dandiya Nights special of Navratri festival is to bring together all the communities and just celebrate the holy spirit of Durga.”
However, the Navratri festival organised by the Sydney Shakti Temple is not just a nine days long celebration but the organisation have a much larger picture to its aim of celebrating this holy festival. The food stalls and other stalls selling the traditional items of Indian culture within the vast premises of the temple have a coupon system. The attendees of the festival have a wide variety of options to choose from the group of stalls set up in the premises. All the money collected during the Navratri festival goes to the charity events and other programmes organised for the betterment of distinctive communities. Last year, a whooping amount of approximately $150000 were collected from this eventful festival. The collected amount was contributed to various charity organisations and institutions.
Events during Navratri
Now, much have been said about the eventful days and the way Navratri festival is celebrated in the foreign landscape of Sydney, Australia. However, main success of this event or festival is because of the spirit of the cheerful attendees and organisers that make this event a success story. Right from the day one of the festival, an impressive number of attendees come to the premises of Sydney Shakti Temple and enjoy this holy festival. The festival is attended by all the distinctive communities, caste, age, and race. The festival brings together all in a delightful harmony and gives out an inspirational message of unity in diversity. On asking upon the excitement level of previous years attendant of this festival, Ms Piya Raj says, “I attended the Navratri festival in this temple last year. I came to know about this event from one of my friends and decided to come as I was missing my country during the auspicious days of Navratri. And I must say it was the best decision ever that I took last year. The environment and the way they organise this nine days long Navratri festival is exceptional. I almost forget that I live in Australia when I attended this festival last year. One of my favourite highlights of this festival are the open Dandiya Nights. This year as well I am eagerly waiting for the Navratri’s to come as I cannot wait to celebrate and feel the spirit of my home country.”
Sydney Shakti Temple takes a great pride in organising the Navratri festival once again for this year. However, the organisation aims to add in few new events in this year’s Navratri festival itinerary. The organisation has decided to add in few more traditional stalls that would sell Indian artefacts and traditional stuff. The main USP of these stalls lies in the people that would be setting up and organising this stall. Sydney Shakti Temple shall be selecting a total number of five Indian based artists that shall be getting the chance to setting up their stalls in the nine days long festival of Navratri held at their premises. These artists shall be chosen based on their application that they have to mail to the official website of Sydney Shakti Temple. The selection process will be done by the founder along with the other patrons of the organisation. The selected artists shall be given an all free trip to Sydney, Australia and an opportunity to set up their stalls featuring their artefacts. This decision taken by the founding members of the organisation is basically for the purpose of promoting Indian culture in the foreign land of Australia and to give exposure to hidden artists of India. The collected amount from all the stalls and events shall proceed towards contributing in the charitable organisations similar to last year.
Sydney Shakti Temple have been manifesting an environment for all those individuals who feel homesick in the foreign land of Australia. The nine days long Navratri festival is a great initiative taken up by the organisation in bringing together not just the Hindu communities but all the communities together. In the name of Goddess Durga, the organisations holds this auspicious event in creating an atmosphere that would not only practice the religious spirits instead creates an environment of harmony, joy, cheerfulness and all the other goodness of the human race.
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Menon, A. 2018. Navratri, the celebration of woman power – Indian Link. online Indian Link. Available at: https://www.indianlink.com.au/navratri-celebration-woman-power/ Accessed 13 Oct. 2018.
SBS Your Language. 2018. The changing face of Navratri celebrations in Australia. online Available at: https://www.sbs.com.au/yourlanguage/punjabi/en/audiotrack/changing-face-navratri-celebrations-australia Accessed 10 Oct. 2018.
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