Evening Herald (Plymouth)
PLYMOUTH, UK, September 26, 2003: A major Hindu festival will be celebrated in Plymouth next week and everyone is invited to join in. The Navaratri Festival, traditionally celebrated for nine days, will be marked on Sunday, October 5, at the city’s Religious Cultural Resource Center in Watts Road, Lipson. The South Asian Association has celebrated the festival for the past two years at the center, but it hopes people from all religious backgrounds will join in with the festivities this year to learn more about Plymouth’s Hindu community. “Anyone can come to join in the festival — you don’t have to have a Hindu background. People will be made to feel completely at ease and they can enjoy what the festival has to offer,” said Bill Meswania, trustee of the center. The festival of Navaratri, which translates as “nine nights,” is one of the most important annual ceremonies in the lives of Hindus. It falls in the Indian month of Aashwin and centers around the worship of Shakti or the “Divine Mother.”