The Durga Puja and Garba night celebration, held in Patterson Hall, allowed two different Indian festivals, Durga Puja and Navaratri, to be celebrated by the diverse group of students in attendance. 

The Indian Wildcats Association hosted the event on Sunday, Sept. 20. from 6-9 p.m. 

“The art festivals are some of the best things of our culture. We want to share it with America and Americans, and we want people to interact with us in these events here. This is the best representation of us as Indians,” Anurag Priyadarshi, a biochemical researcher at the University of Kentucky said. 

Durga Puja is a Hindu festival that celebrates the Hindu goddess Durga. 

The festival is a 10-day event that includes prayer, dancing and a variety of traditions, depending on the region of India where the celebration is taking place, Indian Wildcats Association vice president Hrithika Menon said. 

Navaratri is a Hindu festival that also celebrates the goddess Durga. It is a nine-day event that includes prayer, food and dancing, Menon said. 

“For all the Indian students, even the American students, or people from all other countries, to come experience our festive events,” Menon said. “Because India is known for its rich culture and tradition, … the diversity we have. It’s one country, so under one umbrella we have different traditions, different cultures, different food habits.”

The event started with an introduction to the festivals, followed by a series of different traditions and customs from across India. 

Then came prayers, the sharing of food and two different dances, Garba and Dandiya Raas.

Dandiya Raas involves dancers holding a stick in each hand and using them to create a rhythm, typically with at least one partner, Sayani Chanda, the social media head for the Indian Wildcats Association said. Chanda also did a dance performance at the beginning of the evening. 

“So my dancing, whatever you are seeing, those are actually Bengali songs, and those are Durga Puja oriented. I just worshipped, through my dance, the goddess Durga,” Chanda said. 

Jay Patel, a master’s biomedical engineering student, attended the event to celebrate Garba. Patel grew up in Philadelphia, where there is a community of people who celebrate Garba every year. 

“These events are kind of a way for me to have an outlet of expressing myself and enjoying the culture a little bit,” Patel said. “Even if I have some downtime where I’m on my phone or if I don’t know everybody, I can still say okay, I went there, I danced, I met some new people.”