| |
| Author
|
OT: Jersey City set for 4th Navratri festival, September 29, 30 and Oct 6, 7
|
Pisces1979
IsraTrance Junior Member
Started Topics :
42
Posts :
206
Posted : Sep 29, 2006 02:45
|
Jersey City set for 4th Navratri festival
India Post News Service
JERSEY CITY, NJ: Thousands are expected to converge on Jersey City's Little India neighborhood on September 29, 30 and Oct 6, 7 as the local merchant association announced the 4th Navratri celebrations. It is an annual event that has soared in popularity in the four years it has been organized.
The free cultural event is jointly hosted by the Jersey City Asian Merchant Association (JCAMA) with Govinda Sanskar Center, the Journal Square Restoration Corporation, and Jersey City's Urban Enterprise Zone. The merchants association gives its residents a heady dose of India with its annual street Navratri festival.
As in the past years, this year also the organizers have obtained a city permit to close off Newark Avenue, between Kennedy Boulevard and Tonnelle Avenue, for four nights. The organizers say the raas garba on the streets on India Square is unique and perhaps the only one of its kind in the United States.
The preparations for the Navratri event were kicked off at a meeting at Rasoi restaurant on September 6, which was attended by Jersey City officials, merchants and Dinsha Patel, India's minister of state for petroleum and natural gas.
Traditionally a nine-day festival, Navratri is celebrated in autumn in honor of the goddess Durga.
"That the festivities have successfully spilled out onto Newark Avenue for four years now is a sure sign of the Asian Indian community's growing economic and political importance in Hudson County, said Raju Patel, president of the Jersey City Asian Merchant Association.
Residents says that from the days of the infamous "Dotbuster" attacks in Jersey City in the late 1980s, New Jersey's second largest city is on the rise, driven by the energy and resolve of thousands of newly settled Asian Indians.
"Today, Jersey City is home to the second largest Asian Indian population in New Jersey, second only to Edison," said Patel quoting Census data.
Asian Indians, who numbered about 25,000 out of the total city population of 240,000 at the last Census count, are driving the economy in Jersey City, say local officials.
Most of the 84 shops on Newark Avenue, officially renamed India Square, are owned by Asian Indians and the local merchant's association has much to do with booming business in the neighborhood.
Patel said the Navratri festival would give the community the chance to share some of its good fortune. Organizers plan to raffle round-trip tickets to India, gold and diamond jewelry, Indian movie DVDs and dinners in Little India restaurants.
Some of the money raised by the raffle, Patel said, will be donated to Hudson County Community Ekal Vidyalaya (A one teacher school), an effort to spread education in rural India. Supportive dollars will also be made available to medical institutions serving the poor in Jersey City.
"We're celebrating our heritage," Patel said. "And we're going to try to raise some money for people in India and others in Hudson County, but not just Indians."
While the festival is primarily a religious one, Patel said Little India's celebration would focus on the cultural aspects of Navratri. The principal attraction at the festival will be music and dancing on the street by colorfully-dressed people, just as it is celebrated in Gujarat.
The festival has attracted an average of 10,000 people for the last four years, the organizers say, adding there are some surprise attractions this time. On the days of the festival, shops will remain open until late, with many restaurants offering special Navratri meals. Free water and tea will also be made available for the festival revelers.
http://www.indiapost.com/members/story.php?story_id=5581
  "They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security"
- Benjamin Franklin
"Why did bush knock down the towers?"
- Jadakiss |
|
|
|
Pisces1979
IsraTrance Junior Member
Started Topics :
42
Posts :
206
Posted : Sep 29, 2006 02:46
|
|
@ |
|
|
|
The Tree Tribe
IsraTrance Junior Member
Started Topics :
36
Posts :
580
Posted : Sep 29, 2006 04:36
|
In case you haven't noticed, this is a TRANCE forum...
Peace! |
|
|
|
*Karma Cola*
IsraTrance Full Member
Started Topics :
113
Posts :
2314
Posted : Sep 29, 2006 04:42
|
Quote:
|
On 2006-09-29 04:36, The Tree Tribe wrote:
In case you haven't noticed, this is a TRANCE forum...
Peace!
|
|
well.. it is gonna be highly psychedelic!
~*** You can tell By the way i use my walk, Im a woman's man, No time to Talk***~ |
|
|
|
acidity
IsraTrance Junior Member
Started Topics :
20
Posts :
1491
Posted : Sep 29, 2006 06:19
|
Quote:
|
On 2006-09-29 04:42, *Karma Cola* wrote:
Quote:
|
On 2006-09-29 04:36, The Tree Tribe wrote:
In case you haven't noticed, this is a TRANCE forum...
Peace!
|
|
well.. it is gonna be highly psychedelic!
|
|
Oh yeah with all the colorful clothes people wear. Hope I could be there! Will do my own Navratri at home 
Discover.Vote.Share() - http://www.beamto.us |
|
|
|
The Tree Tribe
IsraTrance Junior Member
Started Topics :
36
Posts :
580
Posted : Sep 30, 2006 05:07
|
|
Don't mean to be an ass, but, is this a psychedelic forum or a trance forum? |
|
|
|
dupdudup
Started Topics :
1
Posts :
184
Posted : Sep 30, 2006 07:34
|
|
looks like psychedelic trance forum
The truth is by no means out there, given to us are the data of our consciousness |
|
|
|
|
|
