Festival Durga, Brahma
Chaitra Navratri begins · Vikram Samvat new year
The first of the nine nights of the spring Navratri and the first day of the Vikram Samvat year.
Chaitra Navratri begins · Vikram Samvat new year 2027 falls on Wednesday, 7 April, computed for Chennai.
Latitude, longitude and time zone 13.08, 80.27
Asia/Kolkata · UTC+5:30
The date of a festival depends on the place.
Read more Show less
A tithi that ends at dusk in Chennai can still be running at dusk a thousand kilometres west, which moves the day. Sunrise and sunset here are computed for the place above.
When it falls next
North India calendar, computed for Chennai
- Wednesday, 7 April 2027
- Monday, 27 March 2028
- Saturday, 14 April 2029
Where Chaitra Navratri begins · Vikram Samvat new year falls on the solar year, and how far the date moves between occurrences.
- 2027: 7 Apr
- 2028: 27 Mar, 10 days earlier
- 2029: 14 Apr, 17 days later
The dates, year by year
North India calendar, computed for Chennai
What the day is
The first of the nine nights of the spring Navratri and the first day of the Vikram Samvat year. The ghatasthapana, the installing of the pot with barley sown in it, is done in the morning and the nine forms of Durga are worshipped a night each; the nine days end at Ram Navami. In Maharashtra the same day is Gudi Padwa and a gudi is raised over the door.
- Deity
- Durga, Brahma
- Kind
- Festival Days of celebration: the house is decorated, a feast is cooked and the temple is visited.
Significance
Chaitra Navratri is the Vasant, or spring, Navratri, and the north keeps it as the goddess's welcome to the new year: tradition holds that Brahma began creation on this Pratipada, and the Vikram Samvat, counted from King Vikramaditya of Ujjain, turns on the same morning. The barley sown round the kalash is watched as closely as the goddess herself, because the height and colour of the jau shoots, the jaware, are read as the promise of the harvest and of the family's year. Many households also keep the navahan path of the Ramcharitmanas across the nine days, a set portion each day, so that the reading reaches the birth of Rama on Ram Navami. The akhand jyoti, a lamp that must not go out for nine days and nights, is the vow a family makes to the goddess, and the kanya pujan at the end feeds nine young girls as the nine Durgas themselves.
How it is kept
The puja as a household does it, in order. Tick each step as it is done.
Chaitra Navratri begins · Vikram Samvat new year: how it is kept
Keep ready
- a wide clay pot or plate with clean earth
- jau (barley) for sowing
- a copper or clay kalash and Gangajal
- five mango leaves
- a coconut with a red chunri and mauli
- a wooden chauki and a red cloth
- roli, akshat, haldi and sindoor
- a brass lamp and ghee for the akhand jyoti
- red flowers, gudhal (hibiscus) above all
- supari, a coin, cloves and elaichi
- havan kund, samagri and mango wood
- the Durga Saptashati or the Durga Chalisa
- bangles, bindi and a chunri for the shringar
The steps
0 of 10 done
What is cooked
The fasting kitchen of the north runs on kuttu (buckwheat) and singhare (water chestnut) flour puris and pakoris, sabudana khichdi, samak rice, aloo cooked with sendha namak, makhane ki kheer, fruit and milk, with ordinary salt, grain, onion and garlic kept out. The Ashtami bhog and the kanya pujan plate are the same: sooji halwa, puri and sookhe kale chane. Rajasthan and Gujarat keep a farali kitchen of rajgira and sama, and Bengal's Basanti Puja cooks its own bhog of khichuri and labra.
The hour
Clock times for Wednesday, 7 April 2027 at Chennai
Chaitra Shukla Pratipada at sunrise, with the ghatasthapana in the first third of the day or in Abhijit muhurtham.
The main rite. The ghatasthapana is done on the morning of Chaitra Shukla Pratipada, in the first third of the day while Pratipada runs, or in the Abhijit muhurtham near midday when that is not possible. The kanya pujan and the havan fall on the Ashtami or the Navami, by family custom.
| Instant | Time | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Sunrise | 06:02 | the udaya tithi, the tithi running as the sun comes up |
Sunrise 06:02, sunset 18:21, UTC+5.5. These are the instants the rule is read at, not the temple's own puja times, which every temple prints for itself.
The day itself
| What | When | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Tithi | Shukla Prathamai from 05:21 until next day 04:29 | then Shukla Dwitiyai until 2 days later, 03:11 |
| Nakshatra | Revati until 18:26 | then Ashwini until next day 18:00 |
| Rahu kaal | 12:11 to 13:44 (1 h 32 min) | the eighth of the daylight left alone for a beginning |
| Yamaganda | 07:34 to 09:06 (1 h 32 min) | the eighth ruled by Yama, also avoided |
| Gulika | 10:39 to 12:11 (1 h 32 min) | the eighth of Saturn’s son; what is done in it is said to repeat |
| Abhijit | 11:47 to 12:36 (0 h 49 min) | the midday muhurta, not counted on a Wednesday |
| Moonrise | 05:56 | moonset 18:42 |
For Wednesday, 7 April 2027 at Chennai. A time marked "previous day" or "next day" is on the clock of that day.
The fast
Many keep the whole nine days without grain, salt or onion, on kuttu and singhare flour, fruit and milk; others keep only the first and the last day.
What is avoided
Onion, garlic, meat, eggs and alcohol stay out of the house for the nine days, and those who keep the fast take no grain or ordinary salt. Many do not cut hair or nails, shave or wear leather until the kalash is taken down, and the akhand jyoti is never left untended.
The name
The same day, in every language that has a word for it
Where the regions differ
The north counts the Vikram Samvat year from this day (Gujarat counts from the day after Diwali instead). The same tithi is Ugadi in the Deccan and Cheti Chand for the Sindhis.
In other regions
- Telugu
- The same morning is Ugadi, and many temples keep the nine days that follow as Vasanta Navaratri for Rama, closing with the Sita Rama Kalyanam on the Navami.
- Kannada
- Yugadi opens the year here too, and the nine days are kept for Rama, with the Ramotsava concerts of Bengaluru and Mysuru that run for weeks around the Navami.
- North India (the dates above)
- The Hindi belt keeps it as Chaitra or Vasant Navratri, with the kalash and the jau at home, the Manas read through, and the great crowds at Vaishno Devi, Vindhyachal, Naina Devi and Jhandewalan in Delhi. The nine days end with Ram Navami, and Himachal and Jammu hold their Navratri melas at the Shakti Peeths.
- Maharashtra
- The Pratipada is Gudi Padwa, the Marathi new year with the gudi at the door; the goddess is kept more quietly, with the Chaitra Gauri set up on the Tritiya and the haldi kunku that runs through the month.
- Bengal
- Bengal keeps the spring worship of Durga as Basanti Puja in these days, the older form of the Durga Puja, with Annapurna Puja on the Ashtami; it belongs to family houses and old temples rather than the street.
- Nepal
- Nepal keeps these nine days as the Chaite Dashain, a smaller echo of the autumn festival, with its puja on the Ashtami and Ram Navami at Janakpur to close it.
- Himachal · Uttarakhand
- The nine days are the great season of the Himachal Shaktipeeths: Brajeshwari at Kangra, Jwalamukhi with her burning fissures, Chintpurni, Naina Devi at Bilaspur and Chamunda Devi each hold a Navratra mela and take the bulk of the year’s pilgrims in them. The Asoj Navratras are kept the same way at the same five.
The dates above are the North India reckoning, because that is the calendar this key belongs to. Switch the tradition on the calendar page to see how another one dates the same day.
Greeting
What is said to family and friends on the day
चैत्र नवरात्रि की हार्दिक शुभकामनाएंChaitra Navratri ki hardik shubhkamnayein
Where this day is kept
Nearest first from Chennai, with what is recorded about each.
Temples of Durga near you
Not recorded for this day in particular: the nearest temples of the day's own gods, for a reader whose own temple is not listed above.
- Chennai, Tamil Nadu · Adi Kamakshi and Kamakshi, standing on the pancha agni penance
- Chennai, Tamil Nadu · Devi Karumariamman in her three forms
- Kanchipuram, Tamil Nadu · Kamakshi Devi seated in padmasana with the Sri Chakra
- Chengalpattu, Tamil Nadu · Adhiparasakthi as the swayambhu in the anthill
Your family's own temple comes first, and its calendar is the one that decides.
Read more Show less
A temple is listed here only where the gazetteer's own line names this day, or where this day's own entry names the town, or where the day belongs to the ancestors or the nagas and the temple is recorded for that rite. Where neither table says anything, nothing is listed as kept for the day; where fewer than three are, the nearest temples of the day's own gods are added under a heading of their own.
Mantras
The prayers said with the day. Each opens with its words and meaning.
- Durga Saptashati (Devi Mahatmyam)
- Ya Devi Sarvabhuteshu
- Sarvamangala Mangalye
- Vakratunda Mahakaya
A name without a link is a long reading, read in full from the family’s own copy or at the place of worship; the library prints the shorter prayers.
Fixing a day for it
The muhurtham rules for a puja held alongside, whose day the family chooses
Chaitra Navratri begins · Vikram Samvat new year's own date is set by the rule in "The hour" above, and no muhurtham moves it. For a temple visit around it, whose day the family does choose, the finder below applies these rules.
A temple visit, or the first darshan at a new temple. No weekday is ruled out: Tuesday belongs to Murugan and the Amman, Saturday to Perumal and Sani, so the day usually follows the deity rather than the almanac. Ashtami and Chaturdasi are the two tithis held back for darshan, with the standing exceptions of Sivaratri on Krishna Chaturdasi and Kala Bhairava Ashtami, which are kept on those very days. Rahu kaal, Yamaganda and Gulika kaal are not scored here; the panchangam page prints them for the day you pick, and most families simply wait them out.
Every date here is computed from the Sun and Moon for the place entered, by the rule printed beside it.
Read more Show less
A printed panchangam can differ by a day where an almanac reads a tithi at a different instant, and a family's own custom always comes first. Where the practice genuinely varies, the text says so rather than choosing for you.