U.S. Sees First Navratri Street Festival

[Guest guest]

Jersey City, N.J. (September 26, 2003) - Thousands are expected to

converge on Jersey City's Little India neighborhood tonight and

tomorrow night for the Navratri festival, a religious Hindu festival

organizers say will be celebrated in the streets for the first time

in the United States.

 

Traditionally a nine-day festival, Navratri is celebrated in autumn

in honor of the Hindu goddess Durga. The local Indian community

usually holds the festival in a temple or hall, but this year

organizers will be allowed to close off Newark Avenue between Kennedy

Boulevard and Tonnelle Avenue for their event.

 

That the festivities this year are spilling out onto Newark Avenue is

a sign of the Asian Indian community's growing economic and political

importance in Hudson County, said Raju Patel, president of the Jersey

City Asian Merchant Association.

 

Patel said local Asian Indians often go outside the country to attend

Navratri festivals.

 

"Because of the growing Asian Indian population in Hudson County and

Jersey City, we decided to do something in our own community," said

Patel, who is also president of the Govinda Sanskar Center, a Hindu

temple in Little India and a sponsor of the event.

 

According to the 2000 Census, there are more than 20,000 Asian

Indians in the county and nearly 13,000 in Jersey City. Indians

comprise Hudson County's largest Asian population and the second

largest in Jersey City, behind Filipinos.

 

That's about double what the Indian population was in 1990, when the

census counted 11,450 Indians in Hudson County and 7,320 in Jersey

City.

 

The Indian community's economic weight is also reflected in census

statistics.

 

The median income for a three-person Indian family is $50,710 in

Hudson County and $50,000 in Jersey City, according to the 2000

Census. The median family income for all families is $42,204 in

Hudson County and $39,654 in Jersey City.

 

In recent years, Little India has undergone significant

redevelopment, with new construction and new businesses constantly

opening up. It's a place where the noise of construction is often

drowned out by heavy road and sidewalk traffic, as shoppers come from

all over the metropolitan area for traditional Indian food, clothes,

videos and CDs.

 

Patel said the festival will give the community the chance to share

some of its good fortune. Organizers plan to raffle three round-trip

tickets to India, a 27-inch TV, gold and diamond jewelry, Indian

movie DVDs and dinners in Little India restaurants.

 

Some of the money raised by the raffle, Patel said, will be donated

to Hudson County Community College Foundation, as well as for one-

room schools for the poor in India.

 

"We're celebrating our heritage," Patel said. "And we're going to try

to raise some money for people in India and others in Hudson County,

but not just Indians."

 

The nine nights of Navratri represent the nine manifestations of

Durga, the goddess of power. The ninth night marks Durga's

destruction of the demon Mahisha, and on the 10th day the festival

closes with a special celebration of the triumph of good over evil.

 

While the festival is primarily a religious one, Patel said Little

India's celebration will focus on the cultural aspects of Navratri.

In India, he said, the festival is celebrated differently in

different parts of the country.

 

The principal attraction at tonight's festival will be music and

dancing on the street, just as it is celebrated in the Indian state

of Gujarat, where the origins of the festival are found, said Dinesh

Pandya, general secretary of the Jersey City Asian Merchant

Association.

 

The association has obtained a city permit to close off Newark

Avenue, between Kennedy Boulevard and Tonnelle Avenue, for four

nights - tonight and tomorrow, and Oct. 3 and Oct. 4, between 7 p.m.

and 2 a.m.

 

Mayor Glenn D. Cunningham is expected to kick off the festival

tonight at 10 p.m.

 

Organizers say they are trying to get Pramathesh Rath, consul general

of India, to attend next weekend.

 

Rath is currently hosting Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee,

who is attending the General Assembly of the United Nations in New

York City.

 

Tonight, musical groups from India will provide the frenetic rhythms

that will keep people dancing well into the morning, Patel said.

 

The dance most popular during Navratri festivals is the rasa garba,

fabled to be the dance Lord Krishna used to perform when he was a

boy. Primarily associated with ritual agricultural rites, it is

performed by men and women moving in a circle with measured steps,

marking time with sticks and singing in chorus accompanied by various

instruments.

 

The colorfully embroidered attire used for the dance can range in

price from $100 to more than $1,000. At Deen Fashion on Newark Avenue

in Little India, store owner Navin Patel said he usually sells more

of the costumes, called chania choli, as the festival draws near.

 

"It's the first time the festival will be held in the street in the

United States," the store owner said excitedly. The owner of a

restaurant across the street from Deen Fashion said he expected about

5,000 people to attend the festival tonight.

 

Raju Patel, asked to describe what the atmosphere will be like

tonight, said: "It'll be like when you go into any dancing club and

the rhythm is there. What happens?"

 

Source: "Navratri Begins Tonight: Some Streets to be Closed," by

Martin Espinoza, The Jersey Journal

URL: http://www.nj.com/news/jjournal/index.ssf?/base/news-

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