Navratri is a colorful festival, and is full of excitement. It is a time when family and friends come together and celebrate, enjoy and forget all worries.
Although there are 4 navratris every year, but the most celebrated Navratri is the one which comes in the months of October/ November, before Dussehra and Diwali.
The word Navratri is derived from Sanskrit, which means nine nights – nava (nine) ratri (night).
Therefore, it is a nine day festival and on each day a different form of Goddess Durga is worshipped and is considered very auspicious. Also, each day of Navratri has a separate color attached to it. People wear nine different colors during the nine days of Navratri.
Below mentioned are the different forms of Goddess Durga, worshipped on these nine days long festival.
- Day 1 : Goddess Shailaputri
Goddess Shailaputri is worshipped on the first day of Navratri. Goddess Shailputri is the daughter of mountains and is believed to control the moon. So by worshipping Goddess Shailaputri, it is believed that it will keep the person away from all the bad effects of the moon.
- Day 2: Goddess Brahmacharini
People worship Goddess Brahmacharini as she signifies love, wisdom and knowledge. It is believed that Goddess Brahmacharini did Tapasya for about 5,000 years. It is said that she also carries a rosary in one hand, and a water utensil in the other.
- Day 3: Goddess Chandraghanta
Goddess Chandraghanta is known for the destruction of wicked, evil powers, negative energies, and all the sins. Hence, people worship her on the third day of Navratri to get rid of all the negativity. People offer milk and kheer to the Goddess while worshipping.
- Day 4: Goddess Kushmanda
Goddess Kushmanda signifies warmth and energy and is therefore worshipped to improve health, wealth and power.
- Day 5: Goddess Skandamata
People worship Goddess Skandamata to achieve power, prosperity and salvation. Her name signifies ‘War God’.
- Day 6: Goddess Katyayani
Goddess Katyayani is considered as the Warrior Goddess. It is believed that Sita and Rukmani used to worship her for getting a good husband. Therefore, people worship Goddess to improve marital life and to keep away from all the troubles.
- Day 7: Goddess Kaalratri
Goddess Kaalratri is the fiercest form of Goddess Durga. She is considered as the destroyer of all the evil spirits. So people worship her to be protected from all the evil spirits and negativity.
- Day 8: Goddess Mahagauri
It is believed that she fulfills all the wants and desires of her devotees.
- Day 9: Goddess Siddhidhatri
As her name signifies, she offers supernatural power or meditative abilities to her devotees. ‘Siddhi‘ represents supernatural power or meditative ability and ‘dhatri‘ means giver or offeror.
Story of Navratri:
The story associated with Navratri is the battle that happened between Goddess Durga and the demon Mahishasura.
Mahishasura was granted immortality by Lord Brahma and was told that he could only be defeated by a woman. When he attacked Trilok (Earth, Heaven and Hell), none of the Gods were able to defeat him.
In order to defeat the demon, Lord Brahma, Lord Vishnu and Lord Shiva together created Goddess Durga. She fought with him for 15 days, and in order to be safe, the demon kept changing his form to confuse the Goddess.
Finally, when he turned into a buffalo, it was the time when Goddess Durga killed him with her trishul. It was on the day of Mahalaya that Mashishasura was killed.
As mentioned above, each of the nine days is dedicated to Goddess Durga’s nine avatars and considered very auspicious. In each part of India, it has a different significance.
In the East and various parts of North east India, Navratri is celebrated as Durga Puja, where the festival symbolizes the victory of Goddess Durga over demon Mahishasura, signifying the victory of good over evil (The story is mentioned in the above paragraph).
In the Northern and Western parts of India, Ram Leela (retelling of the Ramayana) is held, ending in Dusshera, where effigies of Ravana are set on fire to signify Lord Ram’s victory over Ravana.
