Navratri Golu Decorations - Ideas and Tips

Dear Geetha (gvi)
Best wishes and good luck to you for having taken the fantastic decision to keep a "Golu" in the US. Blessed are those who decide to celebrate navarathri the traditional way and from experience I can tell you it fills your heart with so much satisfaction.. needs to be experienced.

We have experienced experts here like Chitvish who will guide you but wanted to give a response cos It's my favourite topic :-D .

Some simple inputs from me..

1.The no of steps should be odd.. 3,5,7 but generally 3 is not recommended.
2.The compulsary dolls in a Golu are Vinayagar,Lakshmi,saraswathi and Durga and marapaachi (wooden dolls!)
3.Traditionally mann bommais are kept.. so you can buy a couple of those.. you get lovely light weight paper mache dolls in vibrant colours that are easy to carry too. Brass is a nice idea but it may be heavy right?

You get dolls in poompuhar,khadi kraft all through the year.

Rest later
Regards
Sowmya

 

Dear Geetha
Yes.. I am the same Sowmya . I felt that your user-id sounds familiar and been wanting to ask you ever since I saw your posts in "Ask Chitvish". So you are using the same id here too right?

Regards
Sowmya

 

Dear Geetha,
Since Honeybee has answered most of your queries, I am not repeating them.
It is important to keep a kalasham - a pot with water & coconut in one of the "padis". Devi is supposed to reside there. You must do some naivedyam everyday & do arathi in the evening. You cant chant shlokas which I have given specially for navarathri.
Bommais are entirely your choice; nothing is compulsory. But usually the main deities are definitely kept.
Love,
Chithra.

 

dear gvi,

hi thats a wonderful decision what u took, having golu in your place. best wishes for u. i think i can help u to some extent.


1. the steps in golu should be in odd numbers starting from 1. i have seen people keeping dolls in one step. also i have kept.

2. u can keep in any kind of dolls. the dressed marapachi, and a ganesha is a compulsary one. other than that any dolls can be present in the steps. leven the doll made out of breakable type of material can also be kept.

interested to clear any of oyur doubts if any...

love
shree

 

Dear Chithra madam and friends,

While growing up, visiting every neighbourhood home for sundal was so common & invariably all homes had a design using mud in the golu --- like a mountain ,or some mud on a cardboard depicting beach , or a mound of mud with some water in the middle & a few plastic ducks inside for pond etc. etc. My doubt is -- can we use any mud/sand lying outside because it has to stay like that for 10 days . How to make it stand firm like that because once moisture goes the sand will fall away !
Plus, how to make the small green plants grow on the hill sides ?? My previous neighbour had once tried sprouting some seed [don't know which] then transferred each tiny plant into small paper cups filled with mud , but they just dried away the first day evening itself....

Also, Chitra madam, can you guide us on other traditional decoration ideas for the golu ?? No hurry at all, as there is still time ... just when you are free and able to do so, please share some tips with us.

Do pour in your tips / suggestions too friends.

:-D Regards.

 

Dear Mom,
I have a question My in laws side they don;t keep gollu, so ideally I am not keeping bomais. But would like to keep the kalasam with water and coconut. Is that oney to keep? please let me know.

Thanks
Birraj

 

Dear Kurunji,
We used to keep a milk tin (Nido milk tin must be familiar since you are in Dubai) and plaster it with the normal sand mixed with water. this way, we get the height very easily.
For the trees, you can try sowing Methi seeds & Mustard seeds. They grow within 2-3 days and give you a forest effect.
My husband enjoys doing all this, and every year our house Golu is appreciated by all. Please pm me your contact, so I can invite you.

Regards
USHA

 

Dear Friends,
Sharing a few thoughts on Navarathri.
It is best to have minimum 5 padis - better to avoid 1 & 3.
First keep newspaper sheets & stick them if possible. I would suggest white cloth to be tied so that the dolls will look strikingly colourful in a white background. Try to have a backdrop (more to hide what is behind!).

If you have "marappachi bommais", they are best kept first.

In a kalasam, put chandan & kumkumam outside, raw rice inside along with a coin. Keep a turmeric smeared coconut & mango leaves. Keep this, imagining kalasam as amman.

The best order is:
Top most padi
Deiva uruvangal
Various avatara bommais
Acharyals, saints etc
Famous personalities - manitharul manikkam type
Figurines of human beings, animals etc.
This is because we believe God resides in every living being.

Draw a kolam in front of the kolu.
Daily do one naivedyam.
In the evening take arathi without fail.

All of you can share your ideas here about decoration etc, as Usha has suggested.
Love,
Chithra.