Navratri is a day that is celebrated to honor the nine incarnations of the goddess Durga. The festival is celebrated for nine days and people show their full devotion towards the lord. Let’s see the story behind the festival of Navratri.

Navratri:

Idol of Goddess Durga

Navratri is a festival that is celebrated by friends and families together. On the nine days, people show their devotion towards the goddess. The word Navratri is a Sanskrit word that means “Nine Nights”. The nine nights of the day will be celebrated to the Nine incarnations of Goddess Durga. The main reason for celebrating Navratri is to honor the Goddess Durga’s incarnation and for defeating the evil Mahishasura.

The story behind the festival takes us long back, where there is a king named Mahishasura who wants to be in power. So he started to make penance to the Lord Brahma who is the creator of Lives. By his focused penance, Lord Brahma was pleased and asked Mahishasura what was the purpose of his penance.

He asked his boon to be immortal. But Brahma said that it isn’t possible because of the Universal law.

So for that, he changed his boon that he can only be killed in the hands of a woman and Brahma considered and granted his boon.

By this offer he thought that he wouldn’t get killed by a woman and by that he would become a bigger force on the world. By this, he started waging war on humanity and Devaloka gods too. He was unstoppable.

By seeing this Lord Indra went to the three most powerful gods Lord Shiva, Brahma, and Vishnu.

To solve this conflict they used their powers to create Goddess Durga with many hands and with lots of powers. To defeat Mahishasura the gods offered their weapons to Durga. Lord Shiva gave his Trident (Thirisoolam), Vishnu with his Sudarshana chakra, and Lord Indra with his Vajrayudha.

An idol of killing Mahishasura

By the weapons, courage, inner strength, and with her pet Lion she was ready to fight the evil. The sound of thunder and by the first meeting of Durga made Mahishasura a little stunned. But still, he was so confident and he told that he would not be defeated by a woman. Durga said that she is not an ordinary woman and she is here to fulfill his boon of getting killed at the hands of a woman. And so they battled each other and the battle lasted for 15 days and on the last day when Mahihasura tried to change into a Buffalo to kill Durga he got stabbed by the trident of Lord Shiva by Durga’s hands. And thus Mahishasura was dead.

This is the story behind the celebration of Navratri. The ninth day of Navratri is celebrated as Vijayadasami and celebrated for the winning of good and the ridding of evil. It also has another reason. This is the day when Rama killed Ravana.

The Nine days is celebrated by worshiping nine incarnations of goddess Durga. The day starts by celebrating Goddess Shailputri, Brahmacharini, Chandraghanta, Kushmanda, Skandamata, Katyayani, Kaalrati, Mahagauri, and Siddhidatri. By worshiping the nine incarnations of goddess Durga people can be benefitted. By curing illness and diseases, the longevity of family members, a painless life, increase in intellect, happiness in life, and safety from unnatural events.

A picture of all nine incarnations of goddess Durga

People offer different offerings like Bananas, pure ghee, sugar, Kheer, Malpua, honey, jaggery, coconuts, and sesame seeds for the goddess. These different offerings were offered to different incarnations of goddess Durga. Navratri is celebrated 4 times a year. Magha, Chaitra, Ashadha, and Sharad. The most popular one is Sharad Navaratri which is celebrated all around the world. In some places, people will dress 9 young girls in sarees as nine incarnations of goddess Durga on Navratri. This is how Navratri is celebrated in India. This is the story behind Navratri and its significance. Let’s celebrate Navratri with pure devotion and happiness.