Festive collections- Navratri recipes- Event announcement

I am excited to start this new event series on my Blog- Festive collections, where I would run various events for collecting recipes that are made for a special occasion. Whether it be any Indian festival or a worldwide celebration day, I am thrilled with the idea of having so much at one place.  My own selfish motive behind starting this event is to gather as many recipes as I could, and I am hoping my fellow bloggers would help me in that :)

Why do we celebrate Navratri?

The nine-day festival of Navratri in Hindu religion is held in honour of the nine manifestations of Goddess Durga. Navratri literally means ‘nine nights’ and is celebrated differently in different parts of India by Hindus. The victory of good over evil is celebrated and Goddess Shakti is propitiated. Such adoration to Mother Goddess is unique to Hinduism. The festival also marks the change of  season, first by Chaitra Navaratri- in the  beginning of summer, and then, Ashwina Navaratri, in the beginning of winter. Both the Navratris are celebrated when mother nature undergoes important climate changes because durations of a day and a night in India are almost equal during March to April and September to October.

At these two junctures nature maintains equilibrium between climatic change and solar influence. Being moderate seasons, neither scorching heat nor chill cold; these are perfectly suitable for worshipping balanced energy form of eternity. Both seasons are crucial for our mental and physical health.

Why fasting is important during Navratri ?

Besides carrying all the religious virtues, fasting during Navratri has a  good rationale in Ayurveda. Navratri occurs during two changes of seasons – Fall into Winter and Winter into Spring. As per Ayurveda, seasonal changes are characterized by an excess of the Vata elements, wind and space, which lower immunity. As such, it’s a good idea to take a break from your regular eating patterns during this time of the year and eat easily digested meals that support the immune system.

Fruit, the most easily digested of all food groups, forms the staple food of the Navratri festival. Milk, the other staple, is also consumed for its protein content and tissue building support. What is particularly important about these foods is that they are both ‘sattvic’ i.e. clean and pure. From Ayurvedic perspective this means no toxins, from a Hindu perspective, eating sattvic food help invoke the power of the Devi.

The entire purpose of the Navratri festival is to evoke the protection of Devi, who banishes all all negatives forces in life. This includes toxins that lodge themselves into our mind-body systems, and that comes from the food we eat. Hence by eating lighter food during this time, we tend to flush the toxins from the body.

I personally never keep fasts, but after getting acknowledged with the above information I am so inclined towards going on light during that time. And I need recipes for that !! :)

Moving quickly to the rules below:

• Please DO NOT LINK any recipes other than the Navratri recipes. Any number from new  to archived are welcome, the more the merrier. But they should strictly be eaten during Navratri else I would have to remove them, am afraid 
• The recipe could be of any cuisine or region
• Please note that I am  not specifically asking for Vrat/Fasting recipes, you could link any recipe which can be eaten during Navratri
• Please don’t link any  recipe with non-veg or alcohol, although it goes without saying with Navratri food
• The use of Logo is mandatory, please repost the archived recipes with the link and logo
• The event will run from 16^th Sep-30^th Oct 

For the announcement post, please visit this page and should you have any queries please contact me at nupurs.kitchen@gmail.com

*Disclaimer: The above information has been collected from various websites through a random Google search, and the picture of Goddess Durga on the logo has been taken randomly from a free website. Please contact me, if that has violated any copyright and I will give the due credits. Thanks, Nupur