The INTO center, in collaboration with the Indian Student Association, celebrated Navratri, or “Nine Nights,” on Friday.

The festival is celebrated in Western India to honor the battle between the goddess Durga and the Demon King Mahishasura. The nine nights represent the days the battle lasted and are represented through dance. The dance is called Dandiya Raas, which is also called the “The Sword Dance.” Dandiya Raas is traditionally performed with sticks to represent Durga’s sword during the battle.

Another dance that is commonly seen during this festival is Garba, which is a dance meant to gather the whole community in celebration. Garba is performed by having everyone in a circle dance with intricate hand and feet movements. The center of the circle typically has either an image of the goddess Durga or a lamp for the dancers to circle around.

The INTO center’s Indian culture and language advisor, Samira Gaikwad, said she helped put the event together to share Indian culture with Marshall’s campus.

“The thing about Garba is that’s a community festival of music and dance,” Gaikwad said. “And I thought this would be a good opportunity to bring in the Marshall community and teach them about Indian culture and dance.”

The event took place at the INTO center lawn, where refreshments were provided before the dancing began. When the music started, students who were familiar with Garba and Dandiya Raas began encouraging people to dance.

“The dancing was my favorite part,” INTO student Joy Vu said. “I didn’t know anything about Indian dance, but thanks to this festival I know a little.”

After an hour of non-stop dancing, food was provided to everyone who attended the festival. The food consisted of Indian dishes of varying degrees of spiciness.

After resting, the dancing proceeded until the end of the event at 9:30 p.m.

“I didn’t expect any of the Americans to join us in the dance because the dance can be hard to follow,” INTO student Jaivin Patel said. “But many of them joined and it was really fun dancing with all of them and it just made this festival even more enjoyable.”

Monica Zalaznik can be reach at [email protected].