We all know about this festival but just the "dancing" part of it which we call "garba".But we forget that there are many other things related to this festival like.. what does navratri means? who this festival is dedicated to? why do we dance? So to help you out with all this i have shared some of the facts about this festival.
Lets start with its name NAVRATRI (nav means "nine" and ratri means "nights") its nine days festival where each day is dedicated to different forms of "Maa Durga". It holds the special significance to Gujratis and Bengalis and also this festival period is of great importance for farmers they sow seeds and thank Goddess for her blessings and pray for the better yield. Some perform rigorous fasting during this festival it ends on "Mahanavami". On this day, Kanya Puja where Nine young girls representing the nine forms of Goddess Durga is worshipped. Their feet are washed as the mark for respect for the Goddess Durga and offered new clothes as gifts by the worshiper.
In Gujarat some people keep the lamp in the earthen pot with multiple holes called "GARBO" which is derived from the word garbho meaning (mother's vomb) in there house which symbolises the mother's energy and worshipped. But as the time passed the word 'Deep' disappeared from the word 'Deep Grabh' , the word Garbh remained and later is became Garba which we use today for the dance. Traditionally the dances has to be performed on the songs dedicated to goddesses like 'Maa Amba','Maa Kali' and many different Goddesses.
Those nine days have one colour associated with each day. Those who keep fast during this days wear clothes of that particular colour and peform puja.
Eight day of this festival is of great significance. Its called as "Atham" in Gujarat and "Ashtomi" in Bengal, Orissa here "Durga Ashtami" Puja is also performed. Goddess Durga is worshipped in the form of Gowri on this day.
VIJAYADASHMI (Tenth day)
After these nine days of celebrations the tenth day is called "Vijayadashmi" which many people know as "Dussehra" 'Dus' means ten and 'hara' means defeated. On this day after worshipping Goddess Durga for nine days on tenth day her statue is submerged in river waters which are made of clay and other materials that are used to perform puja which are powerful disinfectants are mixed in river water. This makes the river water useful for the farmers and yeild better crops.
There is the Great Story Associated with this festival One of them is given below:
Victory of Prabhu Ramchandra over Ravana (Ten Headed Devil – The King of Lanka)
On this auspicious day Shri Ram had killed demon Ravana who have abducted his wife Sita to his kingdom of Lanka.
Rama had performed "Chandi Hom” and invoked the blessings of Durga to kill Ravana. Durga blessed Rama with the secret to kill Ravana. Ravana was defeated in his own kingdom of Lanka by Rama & the vanarsena. Rama with Sita & Laxman returned victorious to his kingdom of Ayodhya on the Ashwin Shukla dashami. This victory of Rama is since then celebrated as “Vijaya Dashami”.
During these 10 days of Dussehra, huge idols of Ravana, Kumbhakarna (brother of Ravana) & Meghanad (son of Ravana) are erected and are set on fire by the enthusiastic youth at the sun set.
Thus Dussehra is the festival of Victory of Good over Bad, God over Devil.
2010 Navaratri Date's
8th October - 16th October
Colours for 2010 NAVRATRI :
8th Oct Green,
9th Oct Gray,
10th Oct Pink,
11 Oct White,
12th Oct Red,
13th Oct Blue,
14th Oct Yellow,
15th Oct Purple,
16th Oct Bluish Green
HAPPY NAVRATRI!!!
