By Emma Cummins
staff writer
Traveling to different countries can always broaden your perspective on different cultures. For me, attending the Hindu celebration called “Garba” in Irving had the same results.
Garba is a Hindu form of dance that is traditionally performed during a nine-day Hindu festival. It is a dance, traditionally performed during a nine-day Hindu festival which usually starts late september/early october. The celebration starts at 7 p.m. each night and many people continue to celebrate until 1-2 a.m.
I am a Christian but one of my best friends, Amruta Deole, is Hindu. Garba is an important event for her and I came along to enjoy the experience and see what it would be like.
I first came to Amruta’s house and her mother dressed me up in bracelets and necklaces, a Sari and makeup. Seeing myself in the traditional Indian dress was quite the cultural shock, making both Amruta and I giggle.
The Deole family and I then drove to the temple and I nervously walked into the temple. The temple is quite big, with lines of people lined up for dinner. In the center of the temple, you see a large circle of people dancing with a band and an area filled with everyone’s shoes.
The huge crowds of people reminded me of the way my church, Coppell’s St. Ann Catholic Parish, would meet and congregate. But my church has never had a community dance, which was very new to me.
My friend and I placed our shoes on the floor and walked into the temple to join the dancers. For a few moments, we awkwardly stood by the dancing crowd being accidentally pushed by the more zealous dancers.
After a while, we decided to join in even without knowing the dance. At first it was a disaster, but eventually we learned the dance and joined in with the rest of the crowd. Many of the dancers remained in the revolving circle but after a few minutes I was quite exhausted and Amruta and I decided to take a break.
Dancing with everyone in the temple is quite the experience. The loud music and fast speed of the dance is taxing but it is very cool to learn a new dance at a religious event.
Eventually, the dance comes to an end and all of the community gather in a circle around a shrine. They begin to sing a song in Hindi and clap about one of their goddesses, Durga, who fought a glorious battle between two armies and defeated the evil god Mahishasur.
This was a strange but interesting experience for me. Seeing how others live their lives based on something so completely different from me was an unusual experience. Their religion is so different from mine, yet we all have the same goals, feelings and aspirations.
Seeing a community participate in a celebration that is completely foreign to me was an eye opening experience. People of all ages were in the circle and for me, Hinduism changed from being a foreign religion to being a lifestyle for some people. Christianity is very different from Hinduism but the sense of community in both is very similar.
I am a firm believer in Christianity but seeing the many different types of people and their religions has made me see how diverse our community really is. Learning about the different traditions of a major part of the Indian community in Coppell will change my perspective on community life in Coppell forever.
