Navaratri Festival In India: Essential Guide A Nine-Night Festival In Honor Of The Mother Goddess

<p>Navaratri is a nine-night festival that&nbsp;honors the Mother Goddess&nbsp;in all her manifestations, including Durga, Lakshmi, and Saraswati.&nbsp;It is a festival of worship and dance.&nbsp;The festival culminates with Dussehra, a celebration of the victory of good over evil, on the tenth day.</p><p></p><h3><span>When is Navaratri?</span></h3><p>Actually, there are four different Navaratri festivals throughout the year in India.&nbsp;However, Sharad Navaratri is the most popular.&nbsp;This festival takes place in late September or early October each year.&nbsp;<span></span>The dates of the festival are determined according to the Hindu lunar calendar.</p><p><br></p><p></p><h3><span>Location</span></h3><p>The festival is celebrated throughout India, but in different ways.&nbsp;The most extravagant and famous Navaratri celebrations take place in western India, throughout the state of Gujarat and in Mumbai.&nbsp;In West Bengal and Odisha, Navaratri is celebrated as Durga Puja.</p><p></p><h3><span>How the festival is celebrated</span></h3><p>In western India, Navaratri is celebrated with nine nights of dancing.&nbsp;Gujarati traditional dances, known as garba and dandiya raas, are performed in circles with dancers dressed in colorful clothing.&nbsp;Small decorated sticks called dandiyas are used in dandiya raas.</p><p>In Mumbai, dancing takes over stadiums and clubs across the city.&nbsp;While some of it has retained a traditional flavor, the introduction of the dandiya disco has given Mumbai Navaratri celebrations a glamorous and modern twist.&nbsp;Today, people unleash their dance with a fusion of remixed rhythms and strong Hindi pop music.</p><p>In Delhi, the feature of the Navaratri celebrations are the Ramlila plays that take place throughout the city.&nbsp;The towering effigies of the demon Ravan are burned as part of these performances in Dussehra.&nbsp;According to Hindu mythology in the Ramayana, at the beginning of Navaratri, Rama prayed to Goddess Durga for the divine power to kill Ravan.&nbsp;He received this power on the eighth day, and finally, Ravan was defeated at Dussehra.</p><p><br></p><p>In southern India (Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh), Navaratri is widely known as Golu and is celebrated with the display of dolls.&nbsp;The dolls are symbolic of female power.&nbsp;They are placed on uneven numbered steps (usually three, five, seven, nine, or 11) that are set up with wooden planks and decorated.&nbsp;During the festival, the women visit each other's houses to see the exhibits and exchange sweets.</p><p>In Telangana, in South India, Navaratri is celebrated as Bathukamma.&nbsp;This flower festival is dedicated to Goddess Maha Gauri, an incarnation of Goddess Durga who is considered the giver of life and the Goddess of femininity.</p><p></p><h3><span>Rituals performed during Navaratri</span></h3><p>Over the course of the nine days, the Mother Goddess (Goddess Durga, who is an aspect of Goddess Parvati) is worshiped in her various forms.&nbsp;Worship, accompanied by fasting, takes place in the mornings.&nbsp;The afternoons are for partying and dancing.&nbsp;Each day has a different ritual associated with it.&nbsp;Also, predominantly in the states of Gujarat and Maharashtra, there is a custom of wearing different colors of clothing every day.</p><p><br></p><p>In Gujarat, a clay pot &nbsp;is brought home and decorated on the first day.&nbsp;It is considered as the source of life on earth and a small&nbsp;<em>diya</em>&nbsp;(candle)&nbsp;is kept&nbsp;.&nbsp;The women dance around the pot.</p><p><br></p><p>In Telangana, the goddess is worshiped in the form of Bathukamma, a flower arrangement stacked to resemble a temple tower.&nbsp;The women sing old folk devotional songs and process the Bathukammas to immerse themselves in the water on the last day.</p>