Hi everyone
My greetings to you
Hope you are doing well
Festival of Navratri has begun today馃槉
Navratri is a sanskrit word, here Nav means nine, and Ratri means nights. So Navratri is festival of nine nights(days), at some places it span around ten days.
Why it is celebrated
Navratri is celebrated in the honor of Divine Feminine Shakti, Maa Durga. Navratri is the celebration of victory of good over evil. in West Bengal it is called as Durga Pooja and span for ten days.
When it is celebrated
Basically there are four sesonal Navratri, but mainly Navratri is celebrated two times yearly. Out of which, this one is most popular.
This Navratri known as Sharad Navratri (Sharad here specify autumn) begin with Hindu month Ashwin shukla paksha(bright fortnight) prathma(first day) which generally falls in the month of September-October.
Story of Navratri
Goddess Durga fights with demon Mahishasura for nine days and emerges victorious over him, and so restoring dharma(Righteousness). Basically Navratri is the celebration of good over evil.
How it is celebrated
Navratri is celebrated by worshipping Goddess Durga in its nine forms, one form for each day. Fasting for nine days (some people do fasting for two days too), chanting of scriptures like Shri Durga shaptashati (in which all details of Goddess Durga's fight with demon Mahishaashura is given)
At many places fairs are organized for nine days ,, and people celebrated with all the fun. At places it is celebrated with folk dance and folk songs.
Dandiya Raas is a famous folk dance of state Gujarat that is performed during Navratri. This is a form of group dance, and it is performed with sticks in hands.
Food during Navratri
People who observe fast follow a strict diet, mainly sticking to fruits and liquids only. They abstain from consuming any type of grains, onions, garlic, alcohol, non veg food etc. Mainly simple fruit diet is followed. Fasting for nine days helps completely detox your whole system so it benefit you in all the ways at physical as well as spiritual level.
So festive season begin with Navratri, and now there will be a lot of festivals in line, including my most favorite one, Diwali(The festival of lights馃槉馃槉
That's all for today
Hope you like the information i shared today.
Hopefully I will make another post with some good snaps of Navratri celebrations in the temple.
Thank you
