Durgashtami Festival The eighth night of Sharad Navaratri, held to be the fiercest and the most powerful of the nine: Durga as Mahishasuramardini is worshipped, and in Karnataka the Ayudha Puja of arms and tools often falls here.
The name
The same day, written in each of the six scripts this app keeps
- English
- Durgashtami
- తెలుగు
- దుర్గాష్టమి
- ಕನ್ನಡ
- ದುರ್ಗಾಷ್ಟಮಿ
Only the names actually in use are listed. A blank script is not an omission: the day may simply not be kept there, or be kept under a different festival's name.
UTC+5:30
The date of a festival depends on the place: 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
Looking for the calendar this day belongs to
This day does not fall again in the next three years at this place. A few days are tied to the solar month rather than to the civil year, so a year can hold two of them or none.
What the day is
The eighth night of Sharad Navaratri, held to be the fiercest and the most powerful of the nine: Durga as Mahishasuramardini is worshipped, and in Karnataka the Ayudha Puja of arms and tools often falls here. Young girls are fed and given cloth as the Kumari Puja.
- Deity
- Durga, Mahishasuramardini
- Kind
- Festival Days of celebration: the house is decorated, a feast is cooked and the temple is visited.
The hour
The rule in words
Ashwayuja Shukla Ashtami at sunrise; the Sandhi Puja of the Bengali rite falls in the twenty-four minutes either side of the Ashtami turning into Navami.
The fast
Many keep the whole nine nights on one meal a day or on fruit; the Ashtami fast is the strictest of them and is broken after the evening puja.
Where the regions differ
Karnataka and Andhra keep it as a Durga night; Bengal keeps the same day as Maha Ashtami, the heart of Durga Puja; Tamil Nadu counts it as the eighth day of the Kolu.
Every date here is computed from the Sun and Moon for the place entered, by the rule printed beside it. 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.