Navratri - 9 nights of dance

Navratri is a festival celebrated for 9 nights in October. The festival is held to usher in the goddesses (specifically Durga, but it's dependant on the region), and this is done through dance. The festival is traditionally held in Gujarat, a Northwestern state of India, but has spread to many parts of India (and is often held in the US and other places with large Gujarat populations).
Each of the 9 nights, people gather to dance. Often, they will do so until the wee hours of the morning - going for 4 or 5 hours without stopping. People buy 'season's passes' and go for all 9 nights, dancing with enthusasium the whole time. The dancing is done at a relatively frantic pace, often in large circles of 10-12. There are two forms of the dance - one incorporating sticks that you hit together and another freeform dance. Here is more information, as well as some pictures. On that site you can see the traditional clothing for women.

So I went to this festival on Saturday night. Although I didn't wear the traditional Gujarati outfit, I did wear somewhat traditional Indian clothes - including a skirt. For those of you who don't know me, I don't wear skirts, period (except as a dare, with copious amounts of alcohol involved). Anyways, there was no alcohol involved on Saturday night. I arrived at the venue as a guest of one of our suppliers and we were soon joined by about 6 people from the team I work with here.

I danced. And in the middle of 10,000 Indian people I stood out for a variety of reasons: I danced badly, I was white, and I was a head taller than most of the women around (also, the short hair seems to attract attention). Did I care? Nope, not a bit. Once I had made up my mind to wear a skirt, I just decided to go with the flow. It was AMAZING. The energy, passion, beauty and devotion. The costumes were spectacular - men and women. I am so lucky I got to go.

There are pictures, I just don't have them yet. I promise I will upload them as soon as I can.