Superhit swagat
Women dressed in traditional attire, complete with a nauvari saree and a nath riding on scooters was the theme last year while celebrating Swagatyatra, the Maharashtrian New Year. Thane every year celebrates this new beginning with a unique theme. Dr Asha Mandpe relives the experiences of Swagatyarta celebrated in the last few years
New Year brings new hopes and aspirations in everybody’s life hence the first day of each year is greeted with great enthusiasm. Indians are known for their love towards festivals and religious rituals as they celebrate every seasonal festival with fun and frolic and New Year celebrations are no exceptions.
When some leaders observed that in the recent years Indian youths were too much influenced by the Western culture they realised that some creative efforts were needed to attract them towards their roots, they thought about celebrating Maharashtrian New Year in a traditional style.
Thaneites supported the idea and to start with, leaders came together and formed ’Shree Kopineshwar Swagatyatra Committee’ that proposed to celebrate Gudi Padva, which is the first day of Hindu year with a luminous Swagatyatra in which all the citizens would participate forgetting their caste and creed. MY Gokhale was elected as the trustee of the committee and DK Soman, Daud Dalvi, Sudhir Vaidya, Vidyadhar Thanekar, Uttam Joshi, Vishwas Damle and Prakash Phadke were other members. The committee approached schools, colleges and about 50 NGOs from the city and appealed them to join this mega event. Citizens were so enthusiastic in participating in the procession that they even donated generously. The budget of this event crossed over one crore rupees.
Thane city organised first Swagatyatra in 2002 that received wonderful response. The celebration started from the eve of Gudi Padva. Hundreds of people gathered at Masunda Lake with earthen divas and lit them on the banks of the lake. The lines of lamps created beautiful atmosphere. After that, noiseless crackers brightened the sky.
Early in the morning on the day of Gudi Padva, people assemble at Kopineshwar temple and after worshipping the Lord, which is the first deity of the city, the palanquin of Kopineshwar led the procession along with the musical tunes of shehanai and other instruments. A band of musicians followed the procession. It was clearly visible that every participant was in traditional dress and was charged with enthusiasm. Ladies of Thane city toiled hard drawing rangolis on the way of the Swagatyatra. Last year, a group of 50 young ladies were riding on scooters dressed in traditional Nauvari sarees, traditional Maharashtrian ornaments like nath and necklaces. A troupe of horse riders and tanga buggies carrying dignitaries was an added attraction to the Swagatyatra.
NGOs including Jisnyasa, Hariyali, Sanskar Bharti, Vanawasi Kalyan Ashram and others join the Swagatyatra with attractive floats that display scenes related to their activity. People from other communities depicted the spirit of national integrity by participating in the event. Sikh Gurudwara from Thane provided sharbet and water to everyone. Adiwasi groups from Thane district came with their musical instruments including dhol and tarpa and on their way they perform traditional dances.
Yogacharya Shrikrishna Vyavahare was the President of this year’s Swagatyatra. Expressing his views to Thane Plus he said, "It is essential to give Indian sanskars to youngsters as in future they are going to carry the heritage of Indian culture. In the past six years we have observed that everyone loves to participate in festive celebrations. I’m happy to see that youngsters are participating in the Swagatyatra in Indian dresses. The concept has become so popular that people from places like Vasant Vihar, Kalva, Thane East and complexes on Ghodbunder Road have started organising separate Swagatyatra. It shows that our purpose has been
fulfilled."
Swagatyatra in short
* First Swagatyatra was organised in 2002
* People from all the caste and creed come together
* It’s celebrated on the Gudi Padva day - the first day of Maharashtrian New year
* Almost 50 NGO’s along with various school and college students actively participate in this mega event