01What Chaitra Navratri is
Chaitra Navratri is the nine nights of the goddess at the start of the lunar year, from Shukla Pratipada of Chaitra to Navami, in spring. It is also called Vasanta Navratri. Its first day is the Hindu new year in much of the country, kept as Gudi Padwa in Maharashtra and as Ugadi in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, and its ninth is Rama Navami, kept for the birth of Rama. Each day is given to one of the nine forms of Durga, the Navadurga. In the north it is kept as faithfully as the autumn Navratri, though with less public celebration.
02The story told of it
The text read through Navratri is the Devi Mahatmya, also called the Durga Saptashati, seven hundred verses from the Markandeya Purana. It tells how the gods, overpowered by the asura Mahishasura, poured their combined power into one radiance that took form as the goddess Durga, who faced him and overcame him; the tradition sets that battle across nine nights. It reads the nine forms as aspects of the one goddess, from Shailaputri, daughter of the mountain, to Siddhidatri, giver of accomplishment. Chaitra Navratri closes with Rama Navami, so the Ramayana is read in many homes as well.
03How it is kept
Navratri begins with Ghatasthapana: a kalash of water set over barley sown in earth, with the goddess invoked into it, in the first third of the day while Pratipada lasts, or at Abhijit muhurta around midday when it does not. This page lists each day by the tithi at sunrise with the goddess of that tithi: Shailaputri, Brahmacharini, Chandraghanta, Kushmanda, Skandamata, Katyayani, Kalaratri, Mahagauri and Siddhidatri. A tithi current at two sunrises makes a ten-day Navratri, and one that touches no sunrise makes an eight-day one. Families fast fully or on fruit, light an akhand jyoti, and on Ashtami or Navami honour young girls as the goddess in kanya pujan.
04How the day is chosen
Navratri begins on the day Pratipada is current at sunrise, and each day after it is listed by the tithi at that day's sunrise. A tithi current at two sunrises adds a day; one that touches no sunrise takes one away.
05Chaitra Navratri in other years
