Indian Holiday Series: Navaratri

Hello my KMD lovelies!

Can’t believe it’s already October- where has the year gone?  Every year around this time, I just wonder how it’s already the beginning of the end of the year holidays.

Speaking of holidays, we all know that Halloween is coming up.  However, as many of you may or may not know, I’m ethnically Indian (Indian from India) so October is one of the best months for Indian holidays.  This sparked an idea in me to do an Indian Outfit Series for the holidays occurring in October.  I’ll be collaborating with an amazing blogger babe Vidhi of coffeeVSchai so don’t forget to check her out for more outfit inspiration!

I’ll be presenting outfits for both the festival of Navaratri and the festival of Diwali.  Navarati is a Hindu festival celebrated during the course of nine nights and days for different reasons depending on the region of India.  Diwali is celebrated all over India within many different religions and is often considered the Indian equivalent of Christmas.

If you haven’t guessed from the title of this post, I’ll be presenting an outfit option for the festival of Navarati.  Before I get really deep into the background of this holiday, I just want to mention that while many may or may not know- I follow the religion of Sikhism.  I state this because Navaratri is not celebrated amongst Sikhs (as far I know, based on my family’s observing Indian holidays).  However, I just want to bring to light that while the religion I follow doesn’t celebrate the holiday, that doesn’t mean I still can’t celebrate it, right?  I love being Indian and everything about my ethnical background, so I like to embrace every part of where my family comes from (even thought you might not see much of that on here – whoops).  With that being said, Navarati is actually one of my favorite holidays that I like to celebrate amongst my friends that do observe the holiday.

Moving on, during the festival of Navarati, many types of dances are performed but the two main ones are Garba and Dandiya Raas.  Garba is performed around a name or the Goddess Durga placed in the middle and individuals would perform the dance around the middle.  Raas is a traditional folk dance that uses a Dandiya- a pair of colorful sticks.  While both of these dances are performed during the festival, many women dress in traditional Chaniya Choli.  This item if clothing is, in simpler terms, is a cropped blouse (similar to a Sari blouse) known as the Choli, a long embroidered and pleated skirt known as the Chaniya or Gagra and long scarf known as the dupatta.

Whew!  Know that I have covered some bases, let’s get into my awesomely colorful outfit- shall we?  Remember when I mentioned how I haven’t celebrated Navratri from a religious prospect but just to support friends and my back ground?  Well, with that in mind, I don’t actually own a Chaniya Choli.  Luckily for me, an amazing friend lent me one of her Chaniya Choli’s for the purposes of this blog post (and to wear for the festival but ssshh, don’t tell her that).

I chose this outfit in particular because I loved the bright colors it had to offer.  Yellow is not something I usually gravitate towards, so I just had to choose this one.  I also loved the touches of pink.  This outfit has minimal embroidery which I loved since it would be easier to dance in.  When looked closely at the Chaniya/Gagra (the skirt), there are little bells hanging from it which really sold me to this outfit.  The bells jingle every time I walked, and I loved the noise of it- especially when dancing!  Lastly, I paired my outfit with some huge statement bangles, a nice pair of dangly earrings, and a beautiful kitten heel sandal.

What is your favorite type of outfit color combination for Navarati?

Also, don’t forget to check out the amazing Blogger Babe Vidhi of coffeeVSchai for more outfit inspiration!

HUGE thanks to the amazingly talented Kunjal Pathak for taking out his time to coordinate the shoot with us and to Denise Chan for doing this amazing hair & make-up look on us.  Check out their socials listed below!

Kunjal Pathak Photography: Instagram, Facebook and E-mail kunjalpathak@gmail.com

Denise Chan Hairstylist & Make-up Artist