golu

It is navarathri times. it is mainly a joy time for girls. Every evening the girls and mamis, dressed up in pattu will be visiting houses, friends and families and by the time they return there will be a big bag with chundal of many types, a bundle of vettiali and pakku and some coconuts and also blouse pieces. The male children will go along with them only till the age of 5 or 6 or even 7. Sometimes there will be fights in our house for these chundals, because at some houses, they will be tasty. The male children will be busy showing their part of the golu. The golu will have bommais that have been bequeathed by three generations. The Chettiar and wife, dasavathara, saraswathi are main attractions. Then there will be our park in a corner. We will be eagerly waiting for the comments on the park and enjoy the appreciations, while having a deaf ear for disapprovals. My brother who has an engineering bend of mind, will arrange a rotating fan at the back of Saraswathi. the fan will be camouflaged with silver and golden papers and also the lighting. Our skills will be seen in the flower arrangements etc. In our house, the golu will be only for the last 3 or 4 days. The pooja eduppu will be done by the Harihara vadyar. The 8th day is the happiest day for us because our books will be kept in pooja and my mother will not say "Pdadida, padida"
I dont remember when the vadyar pooja stopped. now i am doing pooja, thanks to sabha's publishing the pooja vidhi abnd archana mantras in a book.
but my wife will be making the kolu at our house and preparing chundals. She knows classical music.
In trivandrum, the navarathri starts with the arrival of Saraswathi from Padmanabhapuram palace on the elephant(this vigraha was supposed to be used by Kambar), Muruga from velimala in the Velli Kuthirai, and Kundani mangai from suchindram. Saraswathi will be in the Navarathiri mandapam inside fort where there will be music festival. murugan and kundani mangai will be in Arya salai and chenthitta. We will go to these temples in groups.