There is a huge interest in Garba among the youth of India and in particular, the Gujarati diaspora. Boys and men wear kafni pyjamas with a Ghagra – a short round kurta – above the knees and pagadi on the head with bandhini dupatta, kada, and mojiris. Traditionally, women adorn themselves with jhumkas (large earrings), necklaces, bindi, bajubandh, chudas and kangans, kamarbandh, payal, and mojiris. Chaniya Cholis are decorated with beads, shells, mirrors, stars, and embroidery work, mati, etc. The girls and the women wear Chaniya choli, a three-piece dress with a choli, which is an embroidered and colorful blouse, teamed with chaniya, which is the flared, skirt-like bottom, and dupatta, which is usually worn in the traditional Gujarati manner. īoth men and women usually wear colorful costumes while performing garba and dandiya. The merger of these two dances has formed the high-energy dance that is seen today. Modern garba is also heavily influenced by Dandiya Raas ( Gujarātī: ડાંડીયા), a dance traditionally performed by men. Garba is now being appreciated worldwide. Garba is danced around this symbol to honor the fact that all humans have the Divine energy of Devi within them. The vessel itself is a symbol of the body, within whom Divinity (in the form of the Goddess) resides. The Garbha Deep has another symbolic interpretation. The dance symbolizes that God, represented in feminine form in this case, is the only thing that remains unchanging in a constantly changing universe ( jagat). As the cycle of time revolves, from birth, to life, to death and again to rebirth, the only thing that is constant is the Goddess, that one unmoving symbol in the midst of all of this unending and infinite movement. The rings of dancers revolve in cycles, as time in Hinduism is cyclical. Garba is performed in a circle as a symbol of the Hindu view of time. The dancers thus honor Durga, the feminine form of divinity. This lantern represents life the fetus in the womb in particular. Traditionally, the dance is performed around a clay lantern with a light inside, called a Garbha Deep. The word Garba comes from the Sanskrit word for womb and so implies gestation or pregnancy – life. Either the lamp (the Garba Deep) or an image of the Goddess, Durga (also called Amba) is placed in the middle of concentric rings as an object of veneration. Traditionally, it is performed during the nine-day Hindu festival Navarātrī ( Gujarati નવરાત્રી Nava = 9, rātrī = nights). The circular and spiral figures of Garba have similarities to other spiritual dances, such as those of Sufi culture. Many traditional garbas are performed around a centrally lit lamp or a picture or statue of the Goddess Shakti. The name is derived from the Sanskritterm Garbha (“womb”) and Deep (“a small earthenware lamp”). Garba (ગરબા in Gujarati) is a form of dance that originated in the state of Gujarat in India.