Navratri festival

 Navratri is a festival in which people joyously worship Goddess Durga. Indians celebrate this festival with a lot of joy and enthusiasm. Further, the meaning of ‘Nav’ is nine and ‘Ratri’ refers to night. Thus, the festival derives its name as we celebrate it over a period of nine nights.

- The Story Behind It

We celebrate the festival for nine nights and ten days. The festival occurs in the month of October or November. Moreover, in India, people celebrate it four times every year. We refer to these times as Sharada Navratri, Vasanta Navratri, Magha Navratri and Ashada Navratri.

Further, the most famous one is Sharada Navaratri that people all over the country celebrate actively. The people living in the North-eastern and Eastern states refer to it as Durga Puja. According to the holy scriptures, Mahishasura was a demon king. Also, he was an ardent worshipper of Lord Siva and got massive powers.

Misusing his power, he committed a lot of wrongdoings and troubled the people. Thus, the holy trinity of Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva decided to do something. In other words, all their powers got together to create Goddess Durga.

It was done to protect the world from the demon king. Thus, in the Northern, Western and Southern states, people refer to this festival as Rama Lila. Similarly, people also refer to it as Dussehra in these regions. Dussehra is known for symbolizing the victory of Lord Rama over Raavan, the demon king.

- Nine Days Different Savrup Of Goddess Durga

We celebrate the nine days of this festival as a dedication to the nine incarnations of the Goddess Durga. On the first day, she is an incarnation of Goddess Parvati. Similarly, we depict her as the direct incarnation of Mahakali.

On the second day, she is the incarnation of Goddess Parvati only but of her unmarried self. Moreover, the colour of the day, blue, symbolizes peace and strength. Similarly, on the third day, yellow is the colour. It symbolizes the vivaciousness of Goddess Parvati.

Kushmanda, the fourth day, refers to the universe’s creative power. Thus, green is the colour that is associated with this form. Further, she is seen riding a tiger and having eight arms.

On the fifth day, the colour is grey and it symbolizes strength. After that, on the sixth day, we depict her with four arms as she rides a lion. Moreover, this avatar is a symbol of courage. Orange is the colour for the sixth day.

The seventh day shows the most violent form of the Goddess, Mahakali. In other words, her skin turns back in rage for destroying demons. White is the colour of that day. Further, peace and optimism are associated with the eighth day with pink as the colour.

Finally, on the ninth day, she sits on a lotus radiating the wisdom and beauty of nature. Light blue is the colour of the final day.

Therefore, people celebrate and worship all forms of the Goddess enthusiastically. They make a lot of grand statues and carry out processions in her honour. In a lot of places, we see that people host fairs. Most importantly, Navratri brings people together from all over the country and symbolizes diversity and culture.