Festival
Navratri
Also known as Sharad Navratri · Navaratri · the Nine Nights
When it falls
Nine nights · Ashwin Shukla Pratipada → Navami (nine nights)
2026
- GhatasthapanaSun, 11 Oct 2026
- Durga AshtamiSun, 18 Oct 2026
- ★ Maha NavamiMon, 19 Oct 2026
Also: 2027 · 8 Oct
Significance
Navratri means simply nine nights (nava = nine, ratri = night). They are the autumn festival of Shakti — the Goddess in her many forms — and they tell one long story: the Devi’s nine-night battle with the buffalo-demon Mahishasura, and her victory on the tenth day, which is Dussehra.
Each night honours a different form of Durga — the Navadurga — climbing from Shailaputri (daughter of the mountain) on the first night to Siddhidatri (giver of perfection) on the ninth. In Gujarat the nights are danced — garba and dandiya in widening circles around a lamp; in Bengal the same season is Durga Puja; in the south it is Golu, with its tiered displays of dolls. One festival, many rooms.
The nine nights
Ghatasthapana
Shukla Pratipada · also Day 1 · Pratipada
The first night opens with ghatasthapana — the installing of a sanctified pot and the sowing of barley seeds, a small green promise watched over the nine nights.
Durga Ashtami
Shukla Ashtami · also Maha Ashtami
The eighth night, often the most intense — Mahagauri is honoured, and in many homes this is the night of the kanya pujan, when young girls are welcomed as the Goddess herself.
The timing, explained
Sharad ("autumn") Navratri begins on Ashwin Shukla Pratipada — the first day of the bright fortnight of Ashwin — and runs nine nights to Maha Navami. The tenth day, outside the nine, is Vijayadashami / Dussehra. Because it follows the moon, the Gregorian dates shift each year, but it always falls in the bright fortnight after the Mahalaya new moon. (There is a second, spring Navratri — Chaitra Navratri — that closes on Ram Navami; "Navratri" on its own usually means this autumn one.)
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