Navaratri Festival

Navaratri is a festival devoted to the worship of the Hindu deity Durga. The word Navaratri signifies ‘nine evenings’ in Sanskrit, ‘nava’ which means nine and ‘ratri’ which means nights. During these nine nights and ten days, nine types of Devi are venerated. The tenth day is known as Vijayadashami or ‘Dussehra’ (Dasera). Navaratri is a vivacious celebration all over India and Nepal. This year Navratri started on October 13, 2015 and shall end on October 22, 2015

Durga is “Devi” (goddess) or “Shakti” (vitality or force). It is this vitality, which helps God to continue with the work of creation, safeguarding and demolition. As such, you can say that God is still, totally immutable, and the Divine Mother Durga, does everything. Really talking, our love of Shakti re-affirms the exploratory hypothesis that vitality is perpetual. It can’t be made or annihilated. It is always there.

Navaratri is bifurcated into sets of three days to revere diverse parts of the incomparable goddess. On the initial three days, the Mother’s power is invoked called Durga keeping in mind the end goal to annihilate every one of our debasements, vices and imperfections. The following three days, the Mother is loved as a supplier of otherworldly riches, Lakshmi, is considered to have the influence of presenting to her devotees the endless riches. The last arrangement of three days is spent in revering the mother as the goddess of wisdom, Saraswati. All together have all-round accomplishment in life, we require the gifts of every one of the three parts of the perfect mother; thus, the worship for nine nights.

Devotees have nine different colors for each day of this festival. The nine colors are

First Day- Yellow

Second Day- Green

Third Day-Grey

Fourth Day- Orange

Fifth Day- White

Sixth Day- Red

Seventh Day-Blue

Eight Day- Pink

Ninth Day/ Tenth Day-Purple

‘Garba Raas’ and ‘Dandiya Raas’ are the most celebrated Indian folk dance during Navratri garba festival. A popular dance from Gujarat and is being performed not only all over India but all over the world by the Gujaratis.

Devotees observe fast for all nine days during Navaratri. Fasting is not just for spirituality, but it makes us self-disciplined also. It trains our mind and body to be prepared for any hardship in life. It teaches us not to give up!

You may like to read 4 finger-licking recipes for this festive season