Sharad Navratri 2027 (शरद नवरात्रि)

• Durga Saptashati Path — the seven-hundred-verse reading kept through Navratri
• Havan — the fire offering, kept on its own or as part of a larger vidhi
• Ganesh Puja — the invocation of Ganesha, kept before any new beginning

Sharad Navratri is nine nights in Ashwin, opened by kalash sthapana on the first morning — a pot of water with mango leaves and a coconut, installed over a bed of barley sown at the same time. The barley is watched through the nine days and its growth is read as a sign of the year.

One of the Nav Durga is honoured on each night, from Shailaputri on the first to Siddhidatri on the ninth, and the Durga Saptashati — seven hundred verses on the goddess's defeat of Mahishasura — is carried through the week. The fast varies from a full nirjala to a single meal without grain, salt or onion.

Ashtami and Navami are the heavy days. Kanya pujan is kept on one of them: nine girls before puberty are fed, their feet washed, and sent away with a gift, the goddess being worshipped in them rather than in an image.

The tenth day is Vijayadashami, and what it marks depends on where it is kept. In the east the same nine days are Durga Puja and end with the immersion of the image; in the north the day is Dussehra and Ravana's effigy is burned; in Gujarat the nights are danced as garba, and in Tamil Nadu they are kept as golu, with dolls arranged on stepped shelves.