Shirish Paranjape
Christchurch, October 20, 2024
During the past few weekends, the people of Canterbury appeared to have embraced the spirit of Navratri and Durga Pooja, perhaps more than ever before.
There were at least two major Garba dance evenings, both very popular and free to enter. On Saturday, 5th October, the Rolleston Community Center was the venue for Garba Rolls 2024. The event combined Indian folk dance, food stalls (vegetarian food), and a lot of fun. Garba Rolls celebrated the Indian festival of Navaratri with a Kiwi twist.
The event also had a free raffle with exciting prizes, competitions for all ages, and special gifts for children.
Multiethnic Participants
A week later, a bigger event called Ramzat 2024 was held at Te Pae, Christchurch Convention Centre. The participants of the garba dance included several Caucasian dancers, which was very pleasing to note.
The event was scheduled to run from 6.30 pm to 11 pm, but by about 9 pm, the venue’s capacity (1100) was reached. Inside the venue, repeated requests were made for those who were not actively dancing to leave the hall so that others waiting outside could get a chance. When this reporter exited the hall at 9 pm, about 300 people were still waiting outside in the queue.
Several food stalls were set up outside for people to enjoy a wonderful Canterbury evening. At this event too, there were many prizes on offer, including for the scores of kids who were there.
Elsewhere on the same day, 12 October, Christchurch witnessed two separate Durga Pooja celebration events. The larger of the two was held at the Multicultural Recreation and Community Center at South Hagley Park. This event, now in its ninth year, saw about 400 participants. The event started with Pooja at 9 am and ended with evening Aarti and ‘Sindoor Khela.’
Crossing political borders
The multicultural programme had 60 participants presenting about 25 items, which included a ‘circus,’ the Chinese Lion Dance, and Japanese Drums.
Christchurch Mayor Phil Mauger, several MPs from different political parties (Dr Vanessa Weenink, Dr Hamish Campbell, Dr Duncan Webb, Dr Parmjeet Parmar, Laura Trask), former MP Sarah Pallett and Councillor Sam MacDonald attended the event.
It was nice and amusing to see MPs from other parties, too, wearing red outfits as a tribute to Goddess Durga, perhaps setting aside their ‘preferred colour’ for a day!
Another event, Hornby Durga Utsab, was held at the Hei Hei Community Centre.
Shirish Paranjape is an Indian Newslink Reporter in Christchurch. Along with his report, he filed the pictures featured here.
