In short
Chaitra Navratri is a festival observed according to the Hindu calendar. Its date and customary practices can vary by region and local Panchang.
The story
Chaitra Navratri begins the bright fortnight of Chaitra and is one of the major nine-night periods dedicated to the Goddess. Devotees worship Durga through her different forms, seeing the nine nights as a gradual movement from inner strength and discipline toward wisdom and spiritual clarity. In many North Indian traditions the period culminates in Ram Navami, linking worship of Shakti with the birth of Rama. Ghatasthapana or Kalash Sthapana marks the ritual beginning: a sanctified pot is installed, grains may be sown, a lamp is maintained and daily recitation of Devi texts, aarti and fasting are performed. Kanya Puja is observed in many families near Ashtami or Navami. Chaitra Navratri also coincides with spring and, in several regional calendars, the opening of a new year, giving the festival a strong theme of renewal.
Retold from the Devi Mahatmya
Why it matters
Chaitra Navratri is valued for devotion, family tradition and the spiritual or seasonal meaning attached to the day.
What people do
Kept more quietly than the autumn Navratri and with less garba. Barley is sown in a pot on the first day and watched for nine, a fast is kept on some or all of them, and the ninth day runs into Ram Navami.
Retold from the Gujarati household practice
Told differently elsewhere
The north keeps these nine as the larger of the two and the autumn ones as Ramlila's frame; Gujarat and Bengal reverse that. Vasanta Navratri in the south. Jammu's Vaishno Devi and the Chaitra fairs of the Himalayan foothills fall here.
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