Navratri

October 5^th 2013 begins nine days of celebrating the Hindu Goddesses as forms of Shakti, the divine feminine energy.

Durga (Day 1-3)
Durga is a warrior Goddess. She rides a lion or a tiger and she wears bright red. On each day she is also honored in one of her different forms: Kumari, Parvati and Kali. They represent the three different types of femininity: child, young woman, and adult woman.

Lakshmi (Day 4-6)
Lakshmi (Laxmi) is the Goddess of wealth and prosperity. She rides an owl and dresses in gold.

Saraswati (Day 7-9)
The Goddess of wisdom, Saraswati dresses in pure white and rides a white swan.
The most widely accepted account of the nine forms of Durga is the one found in the Devi Mahatmya – Sailaputri, Brahmacharini, Chandraghanta, Kushmanda, Skanda Mata, Katyayani, Kalaratri, Maha Gowri and Siddhidatri.
The nine forms of Durga are worshipped during the nine days of Navaratri.

Stories

In some regions Navratri is considered to be the period of time when Rama spent nine days praying to the Goddess Durga in her nine different forms in order to get the strength to defeat Ravana and save Sita. Dussehra is then celebrated as the day that Rama killed Ravana.

In some regions Navratri is a celebration of the Goddess Durga defeating a buffalo demon named Mahishasura, whom she fought for nine days and killed on Dussehra. In fact, the legend of this story says that Durga was created by the combined power of all the Gods, including the trinity, because they could not defeat Mahishasura.