How do you celebrate Navaratri & basic details about Golu – All you need to know about Golu / Navaratri

Home » How do you celebrate Navaratri & basic details about Golu – All you need to know about Golu / Navaratri

I wanted to post about Navaratri and How to arrange Golu. I don’t keep Golu but both of my sisters do keep Golu and they do plan it almost a few months ahead. During my school days, a lot of my friends do keep golu those days more traditional.

Things become more elaborate these days and I have been visiting a few golu last few years in Singapore, India, and the US. Celebration these days become more elaborate and it is one way to meet all your relatives and friends. With the recent COVID Pandemic this year I heard from friends they are planning to have zoom visit interesting development.

Sharad Navaratri is an auspicious and popular festival celebrated across all parts of India 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 Dussehra or also as Vijayadashami). The First 3 days for Durga, the Next 3 days for Lakshmi, and the last 3 days for Saraswathy.

Goddess Shailaputri is the deity of day 1. Goddess Shailaputri is known to provide good health. So by praying to this goddess it is believed to get a good health. The main ingredient for prasad for day 1 is Ghee. here are few recipes Besan Ladoo, Ashoka Halwa

Day two for Brahmacharini. she is meant to give longevity to the devotees. Prasadam done with white sugar is offered to god Here are some recipe with white sugar Millet Kesari, Kalkand Pongal

Day three for Maa Chandraghanta. She is believed to reward people with her grace, bravery & courage. By her grace, all the sins, distresses, physical sufferings, mental tribulations, and ghostly hurdles of the devotees are eradicated. The main ingredient for prasad for this day is milk. Here are some recipes Besan Kheer, Vermicelli & sago Kheer

Maa Kushmanda is the Goddess of health, wealth, and strength is worshipped on day 4, Devotees can seek her divine blessings by offering sundal and rice. Here are some recipes Lemon rice, Karamani sundal

Goddess of salvation and prosperity Skandmata is worshiped on day 5. the main ingredient for prasad for this day is bananas. Here are some recipes Raw banana bajji

Daughter of Katyayana i.e., Maa Katyayani is worshiped on the sixth day of Navaratri. Devotees blessed with good looks. The main ingredient for the day is Honey. Here are some recipes Panjamirtham

Goddess Kaalratri or Kalaratri is the fiercest form of Navadurga. Devotees are blessed with confidence and can get rid of all negative energies. The main ingredient for this is Jaggery. Here are some recipes green gram dal pongal, rice puttu

On the eighth day of Navratri, also called as Ashtami or durgaashtami Maa Mahagauri is worshiped. Goddess blesses devotees with health and prosperity and fulfills all their wishes. The main ingredient for this day is Coconut. Here are some recipes coconut poli / Coconut obbuttu, Coconut rice

On a ninth day, Mata Siddhidatri blesses devotees with extraordinary powers. Sesame seeds. Here are some recipes Sesame seeds sevai, Sesame seeds laddoo

10th Day Vijayadashami also known as Dussehra, Dasara, or Dashain.

Now let’s talk about how can you arrange golu

you can start from 3 steps and go up to 9 steps to start put Kolam and cover golu stand yellow mixed cloth. The direction of Golu Padi / steps preferably east-west so that we or the dolls don’t face south

Step 1: Keep all plants related things like vegetables, fruits, tree, grass etc.. This denotes we should respect nature

step 2: We should keep dolls made with seashell especially snail related things are good. This is to indicate we should attain higher places by being calm

Step 3: Next we arrange insect dolls like ants, spider, termites. These are indicating we should be an active and solid attitude in our behavior

Step 4: Crab, beetle, bees related things. This is to indicate we should think before taking action

Step 5: We can keep animals, birds alike We should avoid animal behavior & we should live together like birds

Step 6: Human being dolls after following 1-5 we are becoming more human

Step 7: We should keep greats and sage dolls. Tp attain this stage we should have devotion

Step 8: Nayanars and alwars – we should show high devotion like Penance and sacrifice to get the status of a god

Step 9: Brahma-Saraswati, Siva-Parvathi dolls can keep it at the center. We should face golu steps direction

Kumbham – you should treat as Devi sitting and do pooja everyday

When it comes to slogam or how you do Pooja by starting with sankata nachana ganesa slogam or vinayagar agaval followed by Lalitha sahasranamam, Mahisasuramardini every day. My sis advised Lalitha sahasranamam, Mahisasuramardini are must.

Apart from this depending on the available time, you can do

Monday – Lingashtakam for Shivan Lingashtakam

Tuesday – Subramanya bhujangam for Murugan

Wednesday – Narasimha karavalambam

Thursday – guru paduka stotram or Kanchi periyava slokam or raghavendra swamy slokam

Friday – Lakshmi ashtothara sathanamavali, kanakadhara slokam, Lakshmi ashtakam

Saturday – vishnu sahasranamam, Govinda Namavali or Hanuman Chalisa

Sunday – if it is Morning Aditya hrudayam

Whatever mentioned in my post is what I learned from friends and family. If you think there is anything that needs to be corrected or added pls. do drop the message we will learn together!

Here are a few Golu arrangements I got it from my sis and friends