Hindu festival of Navarathri – Nine nights of the Goddess (24th sept – 3rd Oct 2014)

Navarathri (meaning `nine nights’ ) is an annual Hindu Festival that takes place in late Autumn. This year, it begins on Tuesday 16th October and culminates on wednesday 24th October,2012.  I wrote the following feature article in Issue#2 of Gaian Times eco-magazine last year (Sept’11). Here’s the full article again.. reproduced to mark this special Hindu festival..  -Mani

Three Goddesses of Navarathri – Saraswathy, Luxmi & Durga
Photos (c) Mani Navasothy.2012

Navarathri  celebrates and worships three of the many aspects of the Hindu goddess `Shakthi’, which means quite simply `Power’.  She is the power and energy that permeates and moves the planets, stars, moon and all the worlds within and without. Navarathri means, `nine’ (nava) `nights’ (rathri) in Tamil language of the Indian continent. The dates are determined according to the lunar calendar. It begins on the new ( Libran) moon, often at the end of September (this year, on…