Navaratri festival should be celebrated with fasting and devotion

15 October, 2012

This year, the nine-day festival of Navratri begins on October 16 and ends on October 23, Devout Hindus celebrate the festival with day-long fasting for seven to nine days along with worshipping of Goddess Shakti or Durga Mata.

LITERALLY SPEAKING, Navratri is a nine-night festival, celebrated in the honour of Goddess Durga with fasting during the day and late night singing and praying to the Goddess with devotion and humility.

In the eastern states of West Bengal, Orissa, Assam and Tripura, the festival takes the shape of Durga Puja with devotees celebrating the triumph of good over evil with great festivity. During Navratri on the eighth day of fasting or Ashtami, called Kanchika Pujan, young girls are worshipped and served a feast.

Often, a fresh kalash and a puja thali are installed at homes, which represents Mother Goddess for worshipping along with a few idols or portraits of the Goddess. Generally, to break the day-long fasts during Navratri, singhare ka atta or kuttu flour is used to prepare porridge, rotis or puris; as well as sago and potato dishes, gram curry, milk and fruits are consumed.

Hindu scriptures inform that people should bathe two times a day during Navaratri, in the morning and evening, and worship Goddess Durga thereafter. To break the fast after evening worship, simple food items like fruits and milk are mainly consumed by most devotees. Also, devotees sing or listen to devotional songs dedicated to Goddess Durga during this period.

Here is my sentence acrostic on DURGA.

D: Divine mother of the

U: Universe, who

R: Removes sufferings and

G: Grants virtues and powers

A: Affably and compassionately.