How we celebrate?
There are many important things in life. Learning, growing, loving and exploring are things that each of us should take time out for. Celebrations add excitement and to live a life filled with regular doses of celebrations – big or small - makes it worth living.
We celebrate a variety of causes. But when celebrations are coupled with festivals, they somehow become brighter and more joyous. They become the reason for friends and family members to come together, to dress up, to shop, to cook, to eat together, to dance to popular tunes. Indian Weekender decided to take on a journey to find out how we Kiwi-Indians celebrate our festivals away from our home country. It turns out, be it India or New Zealand, we like to celebrate and we do it in all its glory, pomp and splendour. We don’t hold back, whether it is shopping, dressing, eating or simply partying. In our special feature, we bring you some aspects of the big fat Indian celebration and accounts of festivities from some of our readers. Needless to say, the underlying flavour of the feature still remains Diwali.
Ankit Kumar Ahir, Mt Roskill
Navratri is the biggest festival of the year for us Gujaratis. Even though we are far away from our country, I always celebrate this festival. While in India I used to fast on all nine days. But here everyone is busy in their work. Still I do fast, not for all nine days, but at least for one day during Navratri. Different temples and community associations organize Garba and Dandiya during the festival days. I go there with my friends and enjoy the dance. I offer puja and aarti for all nine days at my home. Other than that, Diwali is also a major festival. I light diyas at home on Diwali. We don’t usually get leave from work to celebrate the festival on the exact day. But like this year, when we get a long weekend, I usually go out with my friend and we party.
Manpreet Kaur Bains, New Lynn
For me Diwali and our Ten Guru Sahibs’ birthdays are the major festivals of the year. Although our work schedule doesn’t allow us to celebrate all festivals like we used to do in India, whenever I get a chance I try to make the best of it. On Diwali, after finishing work I go to Gurudwara Sahib at Takanini, where we listen to Gurbani and Kirtan. We light diyas, we have langar and then at the end, watch amazing fireworks. I also go shopping with my friends. Festivals are the only days when we get a chance to meet our people, our friends and families here in Auckland. With such a busy schedule, it is big thing for me if I get time to go to Gurudwara on a festival day.
Ekta Singh, New Lynn
As my brother and his family live in Auckland, I visit them on festivals. We cook different dishes and enjoy yummy food, like we used to in Mumbai. I am originally from Nepal and I do not have a strong bonding with other people here as I had some bad experiences in my early days. I feel shy getting along with new people. It takes me time to trust them. I have made very few friends in three years of being in New Zealand. But I love partying with my ‘very few’ friends. I love Holi, the festival of colors, and I miss the Indian way of celebrating these festivals.
GauravNaik, New Lynn
My way of celebrating festivals is ‘hostel type’. We are six roommates at our home and all are from different parts of India. Though I am Marathi from Goa, most of my friends are north Indian. So together we end up celebrating almost all festivals. The major festival of the year for me is Ganesh Chaturthi. I am completely vegetarian for all five days of this festival. Unlike the rest of the year, I offer prayers regularly on these five days. My roommates have become my family here. We make sweets at home, enjoy music and dance. I am a chef and always busy at work. I don’t even get a chance to visit the temple. In three years I have been to the temples only twice.
One thing that I think also limits the festival celebration options here is the fact that community organisations do not focus on other festivals other than Diwali. There are other major Indian festivals too like Holi, Vaisakhi, Ganesh Chaturthi, Durga puja. The council celebrates Diwali on such a large scale, so we end up celebrating only that festival. If not council, then at least community organisations must focus other festivals too. If they celebrate those festivals, then it is limited to their network only. There isn’t much publicity and hence we miss those celebrations.
SachinSen, organiser of Puja Sangha Inc.
Durga puja is our festival and we mainly spend it by cooking together and eating together. Our Puja Sangha group was formed by Bengalis from Bangladesh and what comes as a novelty is the intermingling with Calcutta-based Bengalis. I came to NZ in 1996 and we started our puja from 1997. In those days, we had about 40-50 families and now we are reduced to four or five families; most of them have moved to other countries. We got the Durga idol from Calcutta. Since there is no immersion, we continue to worship the same idol.
One weekend we celebrate Durga puja and the following weekend Probasee and Nandan associations celebrate puja. This way we get to visit each other’s festivities and also have the celebrations over four days.
Kranthi Naraharisetty, Auckland Central
I am originally from Hyderabad and we celebrate three days of Deepavali. We actually do Laxmi puja on Diwali. We follow our customs just as we do in India, very religiously. But, unlike India, we cannot put diyas outside the apartment; we have to keep them inside. Yes, we light traditional clay diyas.
Arijit Chakraborty, Mount Albert
Festivals to me are all about eating. I try to attend some Durga pujas and Diwali celebrations in Auckland. But my friends and I invariably end up at restaurants. On Durga puja we did go to a puja, but it was not interesting enough. So we went to an Indian restaurant and merrily gorged on yummy food. At Auckland Diwali Festival, we loved the panipuris and dahipuris. Yes, some of the performances were good too.
Soby Bernard Thomas, secretary of Auckland Malayali Samajam
For the last 15 years, we have been celebrating Malayali festivals in Auckland. Initially, it was a challenge to establish our identity and our culture. That stage is over. Now we are part of the multicultural fabric of Auckland. During festivals, we look back at our cultural roots and follow customs. Our celebrations fit in with our work culture. We struggle to find time and stretch ourselves. But the basic purpose of these celebrations is to teach our kids about our culture, understand our values, even if it means we need to skewer our schedule a little bit.
There are many important things in life. Learning, growing, loving and exploring are things that each of us should take time out for. Celebrations add excitement and to live a life filled with regular doses of celebrations – big or small - makes it worth living.
We celebrate a variety of causes....
There are many important things in life. Learning, growing, loving and exploring are things that each of us should take time out for. Celebrations add excitement and to live a life filled with regular doses of celebrations – big or small - makes it worth living.
We celebrate a variety of causes. But when celebrations are coupled with festivals, they somehow become brighter and more joyous. They become the reason for friends and family members to come together, to dress up, to shop, to cook, to eat together, to dance to popular tunes. Indian Weekender decided to take on a journey to find out how we Kiwi-Indians celebrate our festivals away from our home country. It turns out, be it India or New Zealand, we like to celebrate and we do it in all its glory, pomp and splendour. We don’t hold back, whether it is shopping, dressing, eating or simply partying. In our special feature, we bring you some aspects of the big fat Indian celebration and accounts of festivities from some of our readers. Needless to say, the underlying flavour of the feature still remains Diwali.
Ankit Kumar Ahir, Mt Roskill
Navratri is the biggest festival of the year for us Gujaratis. Even though we are far away from our country, I always celebrate this festival. While in India I used to fast on all nine days. But here everyone is busy in their work. Still I do fast, not for all nine days, but at least for one day during Navratri. Different temples and community associations organize Garba and Dandiya during the festival days. I go there with my friends and enjoy the dance. I offer puja and aarti for all nine days at my home. Other than that, Diwali is also a major festival. I light diyas at home on Diwali. We don’t usually get leave from work to celebrate the festival on the exact day. But like this year, when we get a long weekend, I usually go out with my friend and we party.
Manpreet Kaur Bains, New Lynn
For me Diwali and our Ten Guru Sahibs’ birthdays are the major festivals of the year. Although our work schedule doesn’t allow us to celebrate all festivals like we used to do in India, whenever I get a chance I try to make the best of it. On Diwali, after finishing work I go to Gurudwara Sahib at Takanini, where we listen to Gurbani and Kirtan. We light diyas, we have langar and then at the end, watch amazing fireworks. I also go shopping with my friends. Festivals are the only days when we get a chance to meet our people, our friends and families here in Auckland. With such a busy schedule, it is big thing for me if I get time to go to Gurudwara on a festival day.
Ekta Singh, New Lynn
As my brother and his family live in Auckland, I visit them on festivals. We cook different dishes and enjoy yummy food, like we used to in Mumbai. I am originally from Nepal and I do not have a strong bonding with other people here as I had some bad experiences in my early days. I feel shy getting along with new people. It takes me time to trust them. I have made very few friends in three years of being in New Zealand. But I love partying with my ‘very few’ friends. I love Holi, the festival of colors, and I miss the Indian way of celebrating these festivals.
GauravNaik, New Lynn
My way of celebrating festivals is ‘hostel type’. We are six roommates at our home and all are from different parts of India. Though I am Marathi from Goa, most of my friends are north Indian. So together we end up celebrating almost all festivals. The major festival of the year for me is Ganesh Chaturthi. I am completely vegetarian for all five days of this festival. Unlike the rest of the year, I offer prayers regularly on these five days. My roommates have become my family here. We make sweets at home, enjoy music and dance. I am a chef and always busy at work. I don’t even get a chance to visit the temple. In three years I have been to the temples only twice.
One thing that I think also limits the festival celebration options here is the fact that community organisations do not focus on other festivals other than Diwali. There are other major Indian festivals too like Holi, Vaisakhi, Ganesh Chaturthi, Durga puja. The council celebrates Diwali on such a large scale, so we end up celebrating only that festival. If not council, then at least community organisations must focus other festivals too. If they celebrate those festivals, then it is limited to their network only. There isn’t much publicity and hence we miss those celebrations.
SachinSen, organiser of Puja Sangha Inc.
Durga puja is our festival and we mainly spend it by cooking together and eating together. Our Puja Sangha group was formed by Bengalis from Bangladesh and what comes as a novelty is the intermingling with Calcutta-based Bengalis. I came to NZ in 1996 and we started our puja from 1997. In those days, we had about 40-50 families and now we are reduced to four or five families; most of them have moved to other countries. We got the Durga idol from Calcutta. Since there is no immersion, we continue to worship the same idol.
One weekend we celebrate Durga puja and the following weekend Probasee and Nandan associations celebrate puja. This way we get to visit each other’s festivities and also have the celebrations over four days.
Kranthi Naraharisetty, Auckland Central
I am originally from Hyderabad and we celebrate three days of Deepavali. We actually do Laxmi puja on Diwali. We follow our customs just as we do in India, very religiously. But, unlike India, we cannot put diyas outside the apartment; we have to keep them inside. Yes, we light traditional clay diyas.
Arijit Chakraborty, Mount Albert
Festivals to me are all about eating. I try to attend some Durga pujas and Diwali celebrations in Auckland. But my friends and I invariably end up at restaurants. On Durga puja we did go to a puja, but it was not interesting enough. So we went to an Indian restaurant and merrily gorged on yummy food. At Auckland Diwali Festival, we loved the panipuris and dahipuris. Yes, some of the performances were good too.
Soby Bernard Thomas, secretary of Auckland Malayali Samajam
For the last 15 years, we have been celebrating Malayali festivals in Auckland. Initially, it was a challenge to establish our identity and our culture. That stage is over. Now we are part of the multicultural fabric of Auckland. During festivals, we look back at our cultural roots and follow customs. Our celebrations fit in with our work culture. We struggle to find time and stretch ourselves. But the basic purpose of these celebrations is to teach our kids about our culture, understand our values, even if it means we need to skewer our schedule a little bit.
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