Navratri Sharad

Navratri is a Hindu festival that is dedicated to the worship of Goddess Durga and her nine divine avatars for a period of nine days. There are four Navratri in a year but only two of them Chaitra Navratri and Sharad Navratri are celebrated widely across the country.

Navratri is an auspicious festival celebrated all over India for different reasons every year. It is culturally dedicated to Goddess Durga, an exemplar of Shakti or the cosmic energy and is believed to accord spiritual and worldly fulfilment.

Among all the five Navratras (Chaitra, Aashad, Ashwin, Paush and Magh) that fall in a year, Sharad Navratri is the most essential one. Sharad Navratri is celebrated in the Ashwin month or the Sharad month which indicates the beginning of winter.

During the festival of Navratri, people from cities and villages come together to perform Navratri Puja in their house or in shrines epitomizing different manifestations of Goddess Durga. During this nine day festival chanting of mantras, renditions of bhajans or holy songs accompany the Navratri Puja rituals for nine consecutive days.

Importance of Colours in Navratri

Apart from this, each Navratri is related to a particular colour.  It is believed that using these colours during Navratri festival will fetch you good luck.  The Navratri Colours are listed below:

• Pratipada – Yellow
• Dwitiya – Green
• Tritiya – Grey
• Chaturthi – Orange
• Panchami – White
• Shashthi – Red
• Saptami- Royal Blue
• Ashtami - Pink
• Navmi - Purple

Here are some useful safety tips and advice to keep you safe during the many celebrations and events at this time of the year.

If you are celebrating Navratri, we want to ensure you and your family are safe at home.

One way to keep you and your home safe, is by having a working smoke alarm. People tend to do a lot of cooking during this festive celebration, so it is essential to have working smoking alarms on every level of your property.  We recommend you test your smoke alarm once a month and make sure it’s working, a smoke alarm has the potential to save lives.

Accidents do happen when cooking, if you do accidently set your smoke alarm off when cooking, open a window, ventilate the property and the smoke alarm should reset itself.

If you are cooking a feast during Navratri, we encourage you to cook safely:

• If you are frying, remember not to fill your pan with more than a third of oil.
• If it starts to smoke, turn the pan off and allow it to cool.
• Never leave your cooking pans unattended with the heat switched on.
• If a fire does start, do not try to fight it yourself, leave the house and call 999.

If you do go out to celebrate Navratri, remember:

• Turn off any cooking appliances
• Blow out any candles
• Beware of your surroundings and belongings