Sharad Navaratri is an auspicious and popular festival celebrated across the Indian sub-continent to worship Goddess Durga.
‘Nava’ means nine and ‘Ratri’ means nights, a festival celebrated for nine nights and 10 days. The 10th day is called Dusshera (or dussera or also as Vijayadashami). This festival begins on the first day of Ashwin shukla-paksha (1st day of the bright fortnight of lunar month Ashwin).
Every night of the festival a new avatar (or cosmic form) of Durga is worshipped. Devotees fast during the day, offer different pujas, read texts such as Durga Saptashati, Lalitashasranama and others that praise the valor and describe the beauty of the Goddess.
In the evening devotees sing bhajans, perform puja, offer specially prepared naivedyams (or bhog or navratri recipes) and then distribute naivedyam among other devotees and friends.
This year Navratri will begin on Thursday 7 October 2021, and ends on Friday 15 Ocatober 2021
Mangalore Dussehra
Since I come from the Konkan coast, at all Devi temples anna-dana (distribution of cooked food) is a common feature. Similar to puja celebrations in West Bengal, clay idol of the Devi is worshipped mainly in the form of Sharada (Goddess of Knowledge).
In Mangalore, at Kudroli Gokarnanathakshetra (temple) clay idols of all 10 forms of Devi, along with Sharada and Ganesha idols are worshipped for a period of 10 days, and on the 10th night these idols are taken on tableaux across the city with lot of pomp and celebration. The tableaux procession lasts for around 12 hours and the idols return to the temple where one last puja is performed before being immersed in a large temple pond.
This celebration has been popular in Mangalore since last 20 – 25 years and is popularly referred to as Mangalore Dussera. Sharada pooja is also very popular at Venkataramana Temples in the konkan region and the most popular among them are in Venkataramana Temples at Mangalore, Karkala, and Udupi. Dussera celebrations in Mysore is so famous that people from all over the world visit the city of Mysore to participate in the festivities.
Most of the times winter break at schools coincide with this festival. Given this convenience family get-togethers are very common. Variety of food and snacks are prepared from breakfast to dinner, and everyone has a gala time. The delicacies prepared are usually first offered as bhog, naivedyam to the Goddess and therefore the menu is planned in accordance to its importance to the festival.
I have put together a list of main Deities for each day, the main ingredient used in each day’s bhog or navratri recipes main ingredient and its importance according to scriptures. Along with the list you can also find list of recipes from my blog that you may prepare during the festival. Hope you all have a great time this Navaratri with your family and friends!
Importance or Significance of Navratri 9 Days :
Goddess Shailputri (daughter of the mountain) is the deity of worship on the first day of Navaratri. By offering ghee or bhog prepared in ghee, devotees are believed to be blessed with good health.
The ascetic Maa Brahmacharini is worshiped on the second day of Navratri. Just like her pure white saree, she is pleased with bhog prepared in white sugar and blesses devotees family with longevity.
Maa Chandraghanta is worshiped on the third day of this auspicious festival. Chandraghanta mean half-moon shaped like a bell – Maa is believed to adorn a half-moon as jewel in her forehead. Devotees of Maa Chandraghanta are absolved of all sins & mental stress and filled with courage. On this day offer naivedyam prepared using milk.
Maa Kushmanda is the Goddess of health, wealth and strength, and is the deity of worship on the fourth day of Navaratra. Devotees can seek her divine blessings by offering malpua as bhog.
On fifth day of navratra, Skandmata – meaning the mother of Skanda, is worshiped by offering delicacies prepared using bananas. She blesses her devotees with salvation and prosperity.
Daughter of Katyayana i.e., Maa Katyayani is worshiped on sixth day of navaratri. Devotees who offer honey or naivedyam prepared with honey are blessed with good looks.
Goddess Kaalratri or Kalaratri is the fiercest form of Navadurga. Devotees who offer Jaggery or bhog prepared using jaggery are blessed with confidence, and can get rid of all negative energies.
On the eight day of navratri, also called as ashtami or durgaashtami Maa Mahagauri is worshiped. Devotees can seek her blessings by offering coconut or bhog prepared using coconut. Goddess blesses devotees with health and prosperity and fulfills all thier wishes.
On the ninth day Mata Siddhidatri blesses devotees with extraordinary powers. Bhogs prepared using til or sesame seeds are known to please the Goddess.
Navratri South India
In South India, many devotees read Lalitasahasranama during Navratri. The verses in this text reveal that Goddess Durga (Lalita) can be pleased by offering rice based dishes on each day of Navratri. I have given below 9 rice dishes , no onion no garlic that I offer as prasadam or bhog to goddess lakshmi.
To check out the Navratri recipes click on the image or link below each image. I hope these list is helpful for all my readers. Once again I wish you all a very happy and prosperous Navratri (Dussera), Durga Puja
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Navratri Recipes / Navaratri Recipes – Vrat Recipes and Fasting Recipes, Prasadam, Naivedyam Recipes, Upvas Recipes
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![]() Apple Sheera / Pudding by Kushi from Cook with Kushi |
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This post is all about Importance and significance of 9 days of Navratri, colors, and durga puja food Recipes that includes fast, upvas, vrat, prasadam and naivedyam for 9 Days.
- Sabudana
- Barfi
- Katli
- Kheer (Payasam)
- Mango Milkshake
- Chitranna
- Pakora
- Khichdi
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These are some of the recipes that I prepare during Navratri (no onion no garlic)
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Plan your menu from the list, arrange all the items needed
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Prepare the recipe and have a great festival. Stay safe!!!
***Click below to save it on Pinterest***
So interesting and such an awesome selection of recipes! Thanks for teaching us about Navratri and hope you and your family & friends enjoy celebrating this festival!
Thank you Monica 🙂
Wow! This is a wonderful collection of Navratri recipes, Kushi. I don’t fast, but I surely can make bhog for Devi! Happy Navaratri. 🙂
Thank you Anu 🙂
Wow! This is a wonderful collection of Navratri recipes, Kushi. I don’t fast, but I surely can make bhog for Devi! Happy Navaratri. 🙂
Great collection of fasting food for people who observe fast. Can’t wait to try some of the recipes.
Excellent collection of Navratri recipes. Sure to check out again for the next preparation of offering…
Thank you Jeena 🙂
Wow what a wonderful collection of recipes for this special and festive time for you and your family.
Thank you Emma 🙂
That’s a good collection for the Navratri festival Kushi.. Love to cook some of these.. 🙂
Thank you Seena 🙂
I can’t wait to make some of these for Navratri – thank you!!
What a delicious collection of recipes for the Navratri festival! They all look so good.
What an interesting post! It was fun to learn about a fabulous festival and the tasty food that goes with it!
So neat to see all the different foods from a different culture! Thanks for sharing!
Love learning about this unique festival from your post! So many delicious dishes to choose from!
So many awesome dishes to choose from! I would live them all!
Wow there’s so many delicious foods! The tamarind rice is really calling to me! Wonderful post!
Thank you so much for sharing all this great information about Sharad Navaratri. The recipes look amazing too.
What a delicious combination of recipes. Basmati rice is my absolute favorite, so I can’t wait to try the lemon pepper version.
All of these recipes are so delicious!!
Holy moly! I’m drooling over all these recipes. They’re delish!
All of these recipes look so delicious! I can’t wait to try those coconut bites!
What a fabulous list of recipes for Navratri. I’ve only tasted a few of these and am so ready to try the others. Yummy.
Thank you for this interesting read about your Navratri festival! The recipes look amazing!
What fun and tasty recipes! I haven’t tried something like this before; looking forward to giving this a shot!
Love this collection of Navratri recipes! They all look so delicious!
Wow! Quite a collection of recipes you’ve got going on here! They all look delicious! I can’t say that I have tasted any of these, but I’m definitely going to give a try if I come across any of these dishes!
what a wonderful collection of recipes! That lemon pepper rice looks amazing! Look forward to trying lots of these new dishes!
What a great library of recipes! They all look amazing and since I love Indian food they are right up my alley. Can’t wait to make a few of them.
Thank you for your detailed information about the Navratri festival. All of these dishes look so tasty and this is a wonderful collection of recipes to try and share. I love hearing about how food, family and celebrations are intertwined in Indian culture. What a wonderful 10 day experience this is!
what a fabulous collection of recipe! I love Indian cooking but never really branch out too much so thank you for these recipes and the information!
Wow! Sharad Navaratri sounds really an interesting festival. Wish I could learn more about it. And those recipes all look so delicious. Can’t wait to try them.
All the recipes look delicious. Love reading the background behind other cultures festivals and food. So interesting.
I really appreciate you sharing this part of the culture with us. I love learning new cultures and new food recipes. I’ll be trying so of the recipes soon, specially the coconut treats, my husband is crazy about coconut.
This is such a great collection of recipes and a great way to celebrate a holiday – always food!
I had never heard of this festival, thank you for the education! My kids love learning about other cultures so we made up some of the spicy butter biscuits and had a little ‘lesson’ on this and they loved it 🙂
So interesting!! I had never heard of this festival! And these are such awesome recipes! Thanks for teaching us about Navratri, I love learning about new cultures!! Enjoy celebrating!!
This is a yummy collection of Navratri recipes, Kushi. Enjoy! Happy Navaratri.
Very interesting to learn about Navrati and what an awesome collection of recipes! The Rava Coconut Laddu treats sure do look yummy!😋 Thanks so much for sharing!
I’m drooling! These recipes are fantastic. I would love to try them all especiall y the Doodhpak / Kheer / Rice. Pudding
all those treats look absolutely delicious, I couldn’t pick just one. I’d wanna try them all!
Thank you so much for this amazing and really delicious recipes! Super easy to make as well! Highly recommended! Will surely have this again for sure! Loved it!
Quite the selection of recipes to try!
Such a wonderful collection of recipes to celebrate! I especially love the Gulab Jamun and Malpua.
This is an awesome collection thanks for taking the time to share I am going back to scroll through them all
These recipes all look amazing! I can’t wait to try them!
These recipes look and sound so flavorful! Thanks so much for sharing!
What a wonderful celebration! These recipes look so appetizing!
So many delicious ideas, I want to make them all!
This is such an informative post for this celebration and then to include all these wonderful recipes is so helpful to see what you make.
This was such a great post, not only did I learn something new, but I also got a collection of amazing recipes to try. Great list and thank you!
What an inspiring list of Navaratri recipes!
Thank you for teaching us about Navratri. This is an incredible list of recipes and I can’t wait to get started making some of these.
Such a great roundup of recipes. Saving this to give some of them a try! Not sure which to try first…
Such a great roundup of treats! These all look so unique and delicious; looking forward to giving these a try, indeed!
I am loving all of these Navratri recipes! I can’t decide which one I want to try first, although I think I’m leaning towards the fried sweet plantains!
What a beautiful collection of Navratri recipes. They are all so beautiful and use such wonderful intersting ingredients!
Thanks for giving details of Navaratri festival, especially celebration in Mangalore along with Delicious items prepared during Navaratri.
Never knew theres so many options for the Navaratri Festivals. I’ve only tried a few recipes from here and willing to try more!
I really enjoyed learning about navratri. All of these dishes look wonderful.
Seeing these recipes makes me hungry They are really delicious!
Wow! Everything looks amazing! I have never made any of these, but am planning to soon. I have decided to try the banana buns, they look like a fantastic breakfast! Can’t wait!
It was interesting reading about the Navratri 9 days. I think everything looks absolutely delicious, but I’m going to start with the sabudana fries!
So interesting to learn about Navrati and the traditions and foods of this festival. So many delicious looking treats. I would love to try so many of them!
these recipes look amazing
Thank you for sharing all these recipes for Navaratri! I love trying new dishes in different cultures and these all look delicious to try.
Hhhhmmmm…there are some recipes I have liked here. Especially those that look like meat balls! Thanks for sharing about them.
First of all, thanks for sharing these historical facts it’s very informative. Every food recipe looks absolutely delicious and yummy! Loved to try them all!
Oh man, so many delicious-looking recipes here! I wouldn’t even know where to start. Thanks also for the information about the traditions, I’d never heard of it before.
I miss discovering and making new recipes! It’s gonna be great making some of these. Thank you
Wow, a lot of great recipes on this list. I will save some of them to try them later. Thank you for sharing!
These recipes all look so good! I enjoyed reading and learning about Navaratri. I need to try some of these yummy foods.
Great recipes! Love them all
These all sound yummy! I can’t wait to try a few of these recipes. Thanks for sharing!
Maureen | http://www.littlemisscasual.com
This is such a nice way to learn about cultural and religious events in other parts of the world. I am so interested to try these different kinds of food. They all look delicious.
This looks so delicious! I cant wait to give this a try. So exciting!!
Wow! These are all really amazing and delicious looking foods! I am so happy that I learn a lot of different cultures!
Oh wow all of these recipes look amazing, I’m spoiled for choice on which to make first
I am so impressed with your collection of Navratri recipes. There are so many beautiful and interesting ingredients used in them!