Shalini Gupta and her fantastic team behind the Hariyali Teej festival in Christchurch deserve a round of applause for delivering a vibrant and entertaining event with hundreds of people in attendance.
The event hosted on 12 August at Redwood School Auditorium was a free ladies-only event.
Teej, an Indian festival, marks the monsoon’s onset on the third day after a full moon. Dedicated to deities Parvati and Shiva, it’s celebrated by married women and unmarried girls in North India. The three Teej variations are Hartalika Teej, Kajari Teej, and Haryali Teej. Hartalika Teej, occurring in the Shravana month, signifies Parvati and Shiva’s union. Married women visit their parental homes, singing joyful Teej songs while swinging on decorated swings.
The packed event had over 250 women dressed in vibrant and traditional attire, representing the unique culture and region of their origin in India.
The festival, which began five years ago as a small get-together, has grown so big that women and families look forward to the event and plan their performances many months in advance.
Gupta says, “Teej has been a significant part of our upbringing. I grew up in Uttar Pradesh, while my husband is from Rajasthan. Both of these states celebrate Teej in a grand manner. It is wonderful to see so many Christchurch community members come together and support us in this celebration.”
The event was also attended by local Community Board member Dr Sunita Gautam, community leader Archna Tandon and Dr Geeta Singh among others.
Dr Gautam told Indian Weekender, “Christchurch is home to me for Twenty years and seeing the growth in ethnic festivals in Christchurch gives me great joy. It’s about how we learn to live together, celebrate our differences, and face the global challenges of both today and in future.”
Tandon shared, “People at Teej festival enjoyed the vibrant celebration of culture and traditions. I feel it is important to promote and preserve the festival-related traditions such as costumes, music, art, dance and food in a multicultural society.”
At this year’s event, over 10 diverse groups with performers of all ages took to the stage, showcasing dance and music of various parts of India. The audience was thoroughly engaged and entertained, with many people dancing along.
Some of the standout performances included a traditional Punjabi dance by Nisha, along with Sushila and Madhu bringing in the Garhwali flavours. Mini, Pooja, Deepika, and Deepa infused the Bollywood essence with their performance. Sapna presented a traditional Maharashtrian dance. The highlight was a dance medley performed by 15 women that got the audience dancing along.
A fashion show featuring traditional Indian clothing was also a big hit with the audience.
The event featured tasty Indian street food from city-based ’29 Sweets’. It also aimed to support and inspire women entrepreneurs by setting up stalls where they could display and sell their products. Some of the stalls included a Henna booth run by Meenu and Farhana, Rukmani selling her beautiful Silk Saris, and Flaunt Collection showcasing jewelry. Also, Ritu Gupta and Manju had stalls where they exhibited and sold their hand-painted artworks.
Gupta thanked her team which comprised of Jaskiran Sidhu, Paramjeet Kaur, Bhawna Agarwal, Sunita Gautam, and Sushila Bist, among others.
Gupta also expressed her satisfaction to see little kids participating in and appreciating the lesser-known Indian culture and festivals.
“It is a wonderful fun way to expose our youth to these festivals which are not celebrated at a bigger scale,” she said.
The event was supported by A2Z Accounting, Arise Financial Services, Zealand Immigration, Bombay Bazaar and Padmakar Shevde.
