you got me, lol

Don't need to. You did it for me.

Thanks!

Don't you read? 7 pm.

Does anyone know what time they are closing down Newark Ave on Friday night?

Holy cow! Thanks for the heads-up! I was thinking of driving to JSQ and parking in one of those lots.

With the Navrati festival this & next weekend, I'm afraid there won't be any parking spots on the streets or in the lots. I guess it's the PHAT train and YLT for me this Friday!

Will "Sexie Sadie" be there?
Will there be free Slurpees?

Wow "Yo La Tengo" and this!
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Navratri Festival starts Friday night on Newark Ave.
Wednesday, September 27, 2006

Portions of Newark Avenue in Jersey City will be closed Friday and Saturday nights for the Navratri Festival

Navratri is a nine-day cultural and religious festival celebrating deities worshipped by people worldwide. The Jersey City celebration, in its fourth year, will be held on Newark Avenue between Kennedy Boulevard and Tonnelle Avenue. Those streets will be closed from 7 p.m. Friday to 2 a.m. Saturday and from 7 p.m. Saturday to 2 a.m. Sunday. The same closings will be in effect Oct. 6 and 7.

The Jersey City Asian Merchant Association, in cooperation with the Govinda Sanskar Center, Journal Square Restoration Corp. and the Urban Enterprise Zone, is sponsoring the event.

Music, dancing and traditional foods will be featured. The event also hopes to raise money for scholarships at Hudson County Community College and to support a hospital in Hudson.

In previous years, the event has been popular, with estimates of more than 10,000 people attending.

JOURNAL STAFF

Jersey City set for 4th Navratri festival
India Post News Service

JERSEY CITY, NJ: Thousands are expected to converge on Jersey City's Little India neighborhood on September 29, 30 and Oct 6, 7 as the local merchant association announced the 4th Navratri celebrations. It is an annual event that has soared in popularity in the four years it has been organized.

The free cultural event is jointly hosted by the Jersey City Asian Merchant Association (JCAMA) with Govinda Sanskar Center, the Journal Square Restoration Corporation, and Jersey City's Urban Enterprise Zone. The merchants association gives its residents a heady dose of India with its annual street Navratri festival.

As in the past years, this year also the organizers have obtained a city permit to close off Newark Avenue, between Kennedy Boulevard and Tonnelle Avenue, for four nights. The organizers say the raas garba on the streets on India Square is unique and perhaps the only one of its kind in the United States.

The preparations for the Navratri event were kicked off at a meeting at Rasoi restaurant on September 6, which was attended by Jersey City officials, merchants and Dinsha Patel, India's minister of state for petroleum and natural gas.

Traditionally a nine-day festival, Navratri is celebrated in autumn in honor of the goddess Durga.

"That the festivities have successfully spilled out onto Newark Avenue for four years now is a sure sign of the Asian Indian community's growing economic and political importance in Hudson County, said Raju Patel, president of the Jersey City Asian Merchant Association.

Residents says that from the days of the infamous "Dotbuster" attacks in Jersey City in the late 1980s, New Jersey's second largest city is on the rise, driven by the energy and resolve of thousands of newly settled Asian Indians.

"Today, Jersey City is home to the second largest Asian Indian population in New Jersey, second only to Edison," said Patel quoting Census data.

Asian Indians, who numbered about 25,000 out of the total city population of 240,000 at the last Census count, are driving the economy in Jersey City, say local officials.

Most of the 84 shops on Newark Avenue, officially renamed India Square, are owned by Asian Indians and the local merchant's association has much to do with booming business in the neighborhood.

Patel said the Navratri festival would give the community the chance to share some of its good fortune. Organizers plan to raffle round-trip tickets to India, gold and diamond jewelry, Indian movie DVDs and dinners in Little India restaurants.

Some of the money raised by the raffle, Patel said, will be donated to Hudson County Community Ekal Vidyalaya (A one teacher school), an effort to spread education in rural India. Supportive dollars will also be made available to medical institutions serving the poor in Jersey City.

"We're celebrating our heritage," Patel said. "And we're going to try to raise some money for people in India and others in Hudson County, but not just Indians."

While the festival is primarily a religious one, Patel said Little India's celebration would focus on the cultural aspects of Navratri. The principal attraction at the festival will be music and dancing on the street by colorfully-dressed people, just as it is celebrated in Gujarat.

The festival has attracted an average of 10,000 people for the last four years, the organizers say, adding there are some surprise attractions this time. On the days of the festival, shops will remain open until late, with many restaurants offering special Navratri meals. Free water and tea will also be made available for the festival revelers.