Kundli.me · Festivals
Nine nights of the Goddess.
When is it?
From Thursday
334 days to go
The date follows the tithi in the panchang; when a tithi shortens or lengthens, some places keep the festival a day earlier or later.
Why it is celebrated
Navratri means simply “nine nights”. Sharadiya Navratri is the one kept in the sharad (autumn) season, in the lunar month of Ashwin, and it is the largest of the year — the Navratri most people mean when they say the word without qualifying it.
The story and belief
The nine nights carry two stories that run together. In one, Durga fights the buffalo-demon Mahishasura for nine nights and kills him on the tenth — which is why Vijayadashami is literally “the tenth of victory”.
The story and belief · continued
In the other, Rama worships the Goddess for nine nights before the battle with Ravana, an out-of-season invocation that gives the autumn Navratri its other name, Akaal Bodhan (“the untimely awakening”) — the version Bengal keeps as Durga Puja.
Main rituals
Ghatasthapana is the invocation that opens Navratri: the Goddess is invited into a kalash (pot) that then stays in the house for all nine days.
Across India
Customs differ from home to home and region to region; these are the main forms, not a rule everywhere.
Often asked
What is the Ghatasthapana muhurat?
It differs by city and year, because it is derived from your local sunrise and that day's Rahu Kaal. The rule is: the first third of the day, avoiding Rahu Kaal and the Chitra/Vaidhriti window, with the midday Abhijit muhurat as the fallback.
Often asked · answer continued
Check the panchang for your own city on the morning of Pratipada rather than using a time printed for another city.
Sharadiya Navratri
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