Navarathri and Golu 2024
It’s that time of the year. If you’re visiting Chennai now, you must make a visit to Mylapore before Navratri is over. Try not to take your four wheeler in to the streets around the Mylapore Tank. Get dropped by auto or car, and walk around. Soak in the colours, the hustle and bustle, the bright sun shining down on brightly coloured beautiful Golu Bommais (golu dolls)
Golu is a celebratory display of dolls and figurines often representing legendary Hindu Gods, Goddesses and assorted paraphernalia. Golu dolls can also include various scenes from daily life today and recalls from hundreds aand thousands of years ago. This time, the doctor and nurse set is a bestseller, we hear.
Golu is displayed in many South Indian households during Navarathri, the nine day festival where Goddess Durga is believed to be at her peak divinity and we celebrate Good winning over Evil. Specifically, we laud the feminine power and triumph over evil.
Typically, the girls and ladies of the house bring down carefully wrapped and stored-away dolls from the attics and lofts, and display them lovingly on golu padi or ‘steps’ that are usually set up in odd numbers — 3, 5, 7 and so on.
They then invite other girls and ladies to part take in their home’s Navarathri celebrations by offering them betel levels and betel nuts with a fruit and/or coconut, a saree-blouse fabric and sometimes a dress-up set like a comb, small mirror, etc. They also add kungumam (kumkum) and Manjal (turmeric) to the goody bag. The snack that is prepared on every day of the 9 day festival is Sundal, a protein-rich offering, which is traditionally offered to the Goddess first and then eaten by everyone.
Mylapore in Chennai captures the essence of this season now and it is a must-have experience, so do head over there before October 11th 2024, ideally. We must warn you to stay nimble footed in the face of the chaos that can be prevalent here, but it is worth braving the crowds for. We suggest you make your trip there between 3:30& 4:30 pm in order to beat the crowds, though you won’t be able to beat the sun.
Going there after dusk is also a good experience.
Featured here is a real time simple golu display at a Tamil household. 