Navaratri, one of the greatest Hindu festivals, begins today. Navaratri means ‘nine nights’ in Sanskri. The celebration symbolises the triumph of good over evil and the festivities last for nine days. Navratri takes place at the beginning of October around harvest time.

Most Hindus fast during Navaratri and only have a single meal during the day. Despite the fast, food is very important in Navaratri and there are many special Navaratri dishes such as banana chips and aloo raita. Fruits and dairy dishes are very popular, whereas non-vegetarian food is totally avoided during the celebrations. The internet offers several Navartri food and cooking guides. For this year’s Navaratri, India Today suggests a range of “mouth-watering twists” to tradition recipes, that will turn the “fast into a feast.”

To read about the different significances of each day of Navaratri, click here.

Enjoy the dance, and spread happiness and smiles! Happy Navaratri everyone!

Tags: celebration, food, Hinduism, India, Navaratri

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 16th, 2012 at 11:00 am and is filed under days of significance, East Asia, General, South Asia . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.