One Festival, Many Regions

Navaratri is celebrated in strikingly different regional forms, so that it is less one festival than a family of them sharing a season and a theme. In Gujarat the nights are given to the circling dances garba and dandiya-raas, performed around an image or lamp of the Goddess, now vast public events; in the Bengali, Assamese and Odia east it builds toward Durga Puja, the grand worship of Durga in elaborate temporary pavilions (treated separately); in the Tamil and southern regions homes display the Golu, tiered arrangements of dolls and figures of gods, and women exchange visits and gifts.

In much of the north the nine nights accompany the Ramlila, the dramatic re-enactment of the story of Rama, so that the tenth day's victory is read as Rama's defeat of the demon-king Ravana rather than Durga's of Mahishasura; both readings coexist, and the festival easily holds them together. Fasting practices, foods and the intensity of public celebration vary widely by region and community. What unites them is the worship of the Goddess across nine nights and the celebration, on the tenth day, of the triumph of good over evil, a structure flexible enough to carry very different local traditions.