Golu

Our mayor of New York City said this week, "Our Hindu neighbors celebrate the goddess Durga during the festival of Navaratri.

Our neighbors will dance Garba, venerate the goddess Durga and Sindoor Khela, receive tika from elders, set up Golu in their homes, and so much more.

Whether your family calls it Durga Puja, Dashain, Dussehra, or Navratri, may this festival mark this, a season of reflection and renewal." What? He didn't mention anything about Columbus Day, by the way.

He posted that.

It has many names.

In Tamil, it is Bommai Golu, or Kolu, the court of dolls, the royal display of dolls.

In Telugu, Bommalu Koluvu.

In Kannada, Bombe Habba, the festival of dolls.

In Kannada, the Pattada Gombe.

And there is a tradition in many families that when a daughter marries, her parents give her a pair of these dolls as part of her trousseau.

So that in her new home, with her husband, she can begin her own Golu, the first one of her married life.

Every year after, the couple is dressed in new clothes and placed on the steps again.

In the next episode, the last of day five, we go south.

In homes across Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, and Andhra, these nights belong to steps covered in dolls, the Golu, or Bomma Habba, a whole world arranged on a staircase, and the neighbors invited to come and see.

Thank you for listening to Dharma Katha.