With recent news reports indicating that more and more Indians are immigrating to New Zealand on partnership-based visas, Christchurch held its biggest ever Karva Chauth celebrations last Friday at the Shri Swaminarayan Mandir with more than 70 Indian women attending the festivities.
Karva Chauth—a festival celebrated mainly in north India where married women fast, not even drinking water, from sunrise to moonrise for the safety and prolonged life of their husbands—is essentially a community event.
“And we have been organising it like this in Christchurch since last 15 years with participation always around 30–40. But this time the response has been amazing. We even had six–seven newly married girls who were keeping the Karva Chauth fast for the first time,” said Archana Tandon, the event organiser, who works at the University of Canterbury's chemistry department along with being Justice of the Peace and an independent marriage celebrant.
“In the past, even telling people that such an event is happening was tough. Now with social media, it has become convenient. I still remember the time when I immigrated to New Zealand in 1990 as a newly-wed and there were no such avenues. That's why after I settled here, I decided to take initiative and organise Indian festivals such as Karva Chauth and Ganesh Chaturthi along with many others. My husband Surinder Tandon, who is a Senior Scientist at AgResearch, also helps me in this. We hope that such events help Indians—already settled as well as recently immigrated—in integrating into the New Zealand society,” she concluded.