Navratri season is upon us. Grab your friends, put on your chaniya cholis, and head over to the nearest place that’s playing garba music. I know what you’re thinking: what are all these words? Here are some definitions:

Navratri: a Hindu festival that lasts nine days worshipping the goddess Durga

Garba: a tradition of dancing in circles to garba music doing sequences of steps that starts out slow and become faster (comparable to line dancing)

Chaniya choli: intricate Indian outfits that girls wear to garba that consist of a blouse, long skirt, and long sash (or chaniya)

What is garba season?

Garba season encompasses the nine days of Navratri, the tenth day (or Dussehra), and extra weekend garbas temples and universities have so that students can participate in as many days of garba as possible. During navratri, the traditional thing to do is go to all nine days of garba, dancing for hours at a time, and fasting in honor of the goddess Durga.

For many college students, it means going to the weekend of garba hosted by their university with their friends and taking tons of photos in their outfits. It also includes participating in the awesome round of dandiya (dancing with twirling sticks) at the end of the garba.

What to wear

Many girls will wear chaniya cholis (also known as lenghas) with jewelry and bangles. Guys will wear kurtas and long pants. If you don’t have Indian outfits to wear to garba, many people will also wear long pants and tshirts.

The time it takes to get ready is very variable. Usually, for girls, a couple of hours of doing hair, makeup, taking selfies, getting dressed, and taking thousands of group photos will occur even before taking step into the garba.

What you do at garba

Garba actually includes lots of different dance steps that you do to the music. The two traditional garba steps include tran taali (or three claps) and be taali (or two claps). If you want to get fancy, there are people who will do more complicated sequences with more intricate steps and that go forwards and backwards. To join these, just follow the person in front of you and be careful not to get trampled if they decide to go backwards.

After these two garba sequences (the music to them usually lasting 45 minutes to an hour) comes dandiya (stick dance), which also lasts about an hour. The strive to do the entire 45 minute garba is tempting but is pretty tough and people usually hop in and out of the sequence.

Why you should get hype

Garba time is truly one of the happiest times of the year and the best part is that it lasts nine days. Not only do you get to dance hours upon end, you get to hang out with old friends and make new ones. Dancing for hours upon end around the same people truly fosters friendships that although may not last a lifetime, do lead to friendships that make the nine days of navratri even more memorable. And the fact that hundreds of people can dance in sync to fast paced music makes you realize that High School Musical situations truly can occur in real life.

So grab your chaniya cholis, your friends, and blast garba music (examples seen below) because navratri only comes once a year!