At the bank of Navsari Lok Mata Purna river, a good number of the nature-worshipping Parsi Zoroastrian community offered their annual  traditionally ritualistic tribute to the river in the form of fresh coconuts, flowers and everlasting Parsi sweetness in the form of sugar and dar-ni-pori – on the auspicious occasion of Ava Yazad Parabh, on 23rd March, 2023.

The ritual was organised under the able management of the Shri Sorabji Burjorji Garda Collage Trust’s Parsi Cultural Division, which included narrating the importance of the ritual to all the attendees, refreshing the importance of water and our community’s worship of it through the centuries. This was followed by a Jashan ceremony, conducted by Er. Firdos Karkaria and his team. The distribution of light snacks, at the beautiful natural premises of ‘Tata no Wajifo’, next to the Navsari Dungarwadi, on the banks of Purna river, concluded the program.

Earlier, almost every Zoroastrian household in Navsari had a well and the ladies of the house would perform the prayers there. But with the advent of modernization and thus migrations to metro cities, only a few Zoroastrian houses with wells remain, and they adhere to the culture. The rest of Navsari’s Parsi community conducts this ritual as a community gathering opportunity for worshipping the sacred element of water.