Navratri 2025: How The Gujarati Diaspora Celebrates With Food Across Continents

Navratri is so much more than nine nights filled with song and dance; it’s a vibrant celebration of devotion, family reunions, and soul-satisfying food nourishing both body and spirit. As Gujaratis ventured beyond their homeland, they took the essence of this festival with them, allowing it to evolve in new and exciting ways within their adopted communities. The music was transformed to fill community halls, and rituals were tailored to fit local calendars, yet through it all, the pulsating heartbeat of Navratri remained unmistakably alive and captivating.

What strikes me, listening to friends and family scattered across continents, is how food continues to hold the festival together. The thali, the farsan, the fasting dishes, and the late-night sweets are not just about feeding hungry dancers but about holding on to something familiar in unfamiliar lands. In every corner of the diaspora, Navratri food becomes a way of remembering Gujarat, even as it absorbs the flavours of its new surroundings.

The United Kingdom: Community Halls And The Late-Night Chaat Run

In the UK the Gujarati Navratri scene centres around community halls and temple grounds where Garba nights run all week. These events are organised by Gujarati community groups in towns such as Leicester, London and Manchester; they are dressy affairs (designer chaniya-cholis and bandhani fabrics), with professional DJs and live artists imported for headline nights. Food is a major draw: organisers routinely invite local caterers to run Gujarati thali counters and stalls selling hot snacks after the dance sets. Expect the classic sev khamani, dhokla, khandvi, and later, deep-fried favourites that keep dancers going after midnight. Smaller, home-hosted Garba evenings often mean a communal potluck thali: homemade fafda, shaak, undhiyu (the kind that someone’s mother has been slow-cooking for hours) and, for the fast-observant, sabudana vada and samak pulao. 

My Leicester aunt treats Navratri like a season rather than a week. Garba warm-ups begin with weekly classes in January and by the first night the town’s community halls, especially the big ones near the Belgrave Road area, are lit and loud. Her WhatsApp messages always mention costume racks, ticket counters and the food stalls at the back of the hall. When Garba stretches into the early morning the real ritual begins, the “fritter run” for hot farsan and chaat that keeps everyone dancing. Leicester’s events are often run by community groups and local organisers who post gig details and food stall line-ups well in advance. I’ve heard from friends that in the months before, they talk about which hall has the “best kitchen,” who’s bringing undhiyu that “remembers home,” and how much chaat they’ll order after Garba ends. Sweet marts along the Golden Mile, such as Regal and Bobby’s, become part of the rhythm too, families pick up farsan trays in the afternoon to take to the Garba later that night.

Also read: Navratri 2025: The Nine Naivedyams Symbolism & Simple Preparations

United States: Marquee Shows And The Edison Model

In the US the biggest Gujarati gatherings look and feel a little like a festival rather than a community evening. Edison, New Jersey, a long-standing hub of Gujarati culture, hosts large, multi-night Navratri events complete with headline singers from India, fashion stalls and a dedicated food area. These flagship events mix immigrant tastes with convenience: Gujarati thali counters sit alongside food trucks and curated stalls selling favourites such as dabeli, pav bhaji, and Gujarati farsan. The scale permits late-night chaat stands, and professional caterers often produce both traditional dishes and fusion items for younger attendees. The prevalence of large event venues has also created a cluster of specialist Navratri-food vendors who travel from city to city each season. Restaurants like Mithaas even list a special Navratri thali on their menus, priced differently from the regular Gujarati thali, with fasting-friendly dishes like sabudana tikki and khichdi added in for the season. 

My cousin in Edison describes the Navratri there as “a weekend at a music festival but with chaniya-cholis.” Big expo halls fill up with thousands; headline singers fly in from India; and organisers set up full food courts so nobody ever leaves hungry. When she posts from the Edison Expo Hall the photos show long queues for fusion food counters, chaat stalls and sweet booths, and the event listings always promise “authentic food stalls” alongside the entertainment. Vendors often specialise in Navratri gigs and will travel from city to city, think of them as touring farsan merchants: one night in Edison, the next in a Californian expo hall. For many families in the US, these huge events are the main way to reconnect with friends, socialise and sample a dozen Gujarati snacks without going home. 

Canada: Home Cooking And Temple Bazaars 

In Canada, towns in the Greater Toronto Area, such as Mississauga and Brampton, feature a vibrant schedule of Garba nights and community Navratri events. Local Iskcon temples and Indian restaurants often host special Gujarati thali nights during September and October. These temples and cultural associations play an essential role by organising open-air Garba events and setting up large volunteer kitchens, or they may hire local caterers to prepare Navratri thalis. The menus often include fasting-friendly options (sabudana khichdi, samak pulao) alongside more celebratory plates for the evenings. Compared to the grand commercial scale of the US and the UK, the Canadian celebrations feel closer to the warmth of home kitchens, with community effort shining through.

Africa: The Long Ties & East African Gujarati Plates

Gujarati communities in Kenya, Uganda and South Africa bring a distinct swirl of flavours to Navratri shaped by generations spent in Africa. Historic ties to East African cuisine surface at festival meals: dishes such as mandazi (East African fried breads) or pigeon pea stews called bharazi appear alongside classic Gujarati items. The fusion is practical and delicious; Gujarati cooks use local staples and spices, and late-night festival stalls sometimes sell mild, fragrant curries that reflect Indian-Ocean trade routes. Navratri in East Africa can feel both Gujarati and East African at once, an example of how food carries a hybrid identity. These fusion combinations might surprise visitors from Gujarat, but for Gujaratis in Nairobi, they are natural, shaped by a century of coastal exchange. A friend once told me how her grandmother insisted on serving mandazi with besan halwa one Navratri evening. What began as a curiosity ended up becoming a household ritual, and now the family jokes that no Navratri is complete without the pairing. What runs through these stories is the sense of adaptation: where roots or vegetables for undhiyu are not easy to find, pumpkin or sweet potato might stand in, but the spicing and the care remain unmistakably Gujarati.

Shared Threads

Across regions, a few consistent culinary features recur:

• Vegetarian core and farali respect remain constant. Even among those who don’t fast strictly, people make room for fast-friendly snack options, especially on nights of greater observance.
• Thali remains the ritual plate: not just a meal but a symbol. Whoever serves it, the temple, a caterer, or a neighbour, people expect it to include a balance: a vegetable, a legume, rice, and something sweet.
• The late-night or post-Garba hunger is real everywhere. You’ll hear people say “bring an extra kurta so I can change after eating” or “carbs + spice is my Navratri fuel.”
• Adaptation due to produce, cost, and access: Some vegetables that would be standard in Gujarat are hard to find or expensive in some cities, so cooks improvise. The spices, the mouthfeel, and the fat (ghee vs oil) are adjusted, but people try to preserve the essence.

Differences That Tell Stories

• Scale and spectacle (US/UK vs Africa/Canada): The US, particularly pockets like Edison, stages very large “Navratri festivals” with headline singers, which support food courts and travelling vendors. The Africa and Canada celebrations balance community hall Garbas with temple bazaars and smaller restaurant support. This difference changes the food landscape: the US/UK events often feel like a multi-cuisine fair, while African/Canadian nights can be more intimate and home-centred. 
• Local fusion (Africa): In East and South Africa you will routinely find East African items alongside Gujarati plates; that fusion is less visible in North American or UK Navratri nights, where recent immigrant menus tend to echo Gujarat more directly. 
• Commercialisation and convenience: In big diaspora hubs, professional caterers and fusion Navratri menus have grown to meet demand; in smaller towns, volunteer cooks and potlucks remain crucial, which preserves more home-style variations of undhiyu, shrikhand and farsan.

 When I think about all these anecdotes together, what stands out is not just the diversity but the resilience of Gujarati food culture abroad. Gujaratis may adapt their recipes to local vegetables, adjust menus to local expectations, or commercialise to serve thousands at an expo hall, but they never let go of the essential: food as memory, food as identity, food as a way of holding community together. Navratri, in this sense, becomes a map of the diaspora itself.