Navratri: What is Garba and its importance during nine-day festival

Dance like no one is watching is a proverb that holds throughout Navratri. People are quite enthusiastic because it's that time of year when they can dance like no one is watching. Everything we do has meaning in Hindu culture, even the Garba. During the nine-day event, it is of utmost importance. Everyone visiting the fairs (melas) where the Garba dance is performed, including celebrities, businessmen, and everyday people, likes the beat and the delight it brings. We will talk about the significance of Garba during Navratri in this article.

What is Garba?

Gujarati Garba is a type of group circle dance. The dance style was created in Gujarati villages, where it was (and still is) performed by the entire community in public gathering places in the middle of the village. Like many other social events in rural areas, Garba has a religious component. Other names for it are Garbi, Garbha, and Garbha Deep. The Sanskrit term "Garbha Deep" means "womb," while the word "Deep" means "little earthen lanterns." It is typically performed in a circle in front of a big lamp or a Shakti statue. Garba is a form of dance that honours females, celebrates fertility, and pays reverence to all nine types of mother deities.

Navratri and Garba In Gujarat, Navratri is commemorated with nine nights of dancing as a sign of devotion and worship. In celebration of Durga, men and women dance well into the night. Many people fast or adhere to a rigorous diet with limited meals for these nine days and nights. Garba is not exclusively performed during Navratri, even though it is an essential part of Gujarati Navratri celebrations.

Garba is performed in a circle, and the Hindu notion of time is symbolised by the circle. Hinduism believes in cyclical time. The only thing that stays the same across time—from birth to life to death to rebirth—is the Goddess, an unchanging symbol in the midst of all this unending and boundless movement. The dance depicts God, who is seen here in feminine form, as the one constant in a constantly evolving universe (Jagat).

Since Garba is a religious activity, it is conducted barefoot like other Hindu rituals and worship. Walking barefoot is a sign of respect for the ground beneath one's feet. The part of the body that makes contact with the sacred mother of all, the ground, is the foot. The foot is thought to be the conduit through which the earth's life force energy passes through people. The earth has generative qualities. Dancing barefoot is another way to connect to Devi.

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Significance of clapping during Garba

Durgadevi's maraktattva gradually ignites throughout Navratri. Brahma, Vishnu, and Mahesh are the three primary incarnations of God. When we clap three times, the universe's Shakti energy, which is the Goddess's Sankalp energy, which exists in all three phases, is awakened. It is therefore more appropriate and beneficial to honour the Goddess with three claps. The following is the meaning of three claps: The Brahma principle, which refers to a desire for energy, is associated with the first clap.

The initial clap releases the desire frequencies from the Universe, which then supports the desires of the embodied soul based on his bhav.

Through the second clap, the action frequencies that are Vishnu principle-oriented send energy to the embodied soul to carry out the tasks at hand.

Through the third clap's conduit, the knowledge frequencies carry out the task and give the embodied soul the necessary fruit. The 'Garba' dance has also been proposed for the year 2023, after Durga Puja's inscription as an Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) of Humanity by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).