Navratri in Goa: Honouring nature’s bounty with floral & fruit wealth

Keri: The Navratri festival in Goa celebrates the floral and fruit wealth of the monsoon by offering the first fruits to deities.Navratri begins in Goa with the onset of the Ashwin lunar month, where devotees offer nine garlands of flowers to the mother goddess each day as a tribute to the bounty of nature. In the forested and rural areas, wild flowers are used to make garlands that are offered to the deity. Today, market-available flowers are used for garlands, but in the past, locally available ones were preferred.Among the villages dominated by the tribal Velip community, the ritualistic festival (Ushtann)of offering new seasonal fruits is observed before the family members consume them, as they believe these fruits and vegetables are blessed not only by their hard work but also by divine power.In Quepem, there is a traditional annual fair called Tavashya Jatra, during which the first cucumber of the season is offered to the village deity, said tribal researcher Devidas Gaonkar from Cotigao.The tradition of offering seasonal flowers to deities expresses a sense of gratitude to mother nature and folk deities, which are seen as her representations. Navratri in the Ashwin month coincides with the season of natural bounty. In Goa, the pastoral Dhangars tie seasonal flowers to a bamboo canopy, under which clan deities are worshipped after being taken out from a rectangular cane box, locally called Pud.Vithal Shelke said, “We tie the wild and cultivated seasonal fruits to the canopy ( Mati), under which the clan deities are worshipped. For us Mhalchi Pandhar is the representation of mother nature, and on the occasion of Dussehra, we invoke her blessings.”