Sun Mar 30 01:20:00 UTC 2025: ## Chaitra Navratri 2025: Auspicious Muhurat for Ghatasthapana Announced
**NEW DELHI** – Chaitra Navratri, a nine-day Hindu festival honoring Goddess Durga, will be celebrated from March 30th to April 6th, 2025. This year holds special significance as Goddess Durga is said to be arriving on an elephant, a highly auspicious symbol representing prosperity, good rainfall, and protection from calamities. The festival also marks the beginning of the Hindu New Year, Nav Samvatsar.
Two auspicious time slots are available for Ghatasthapana (pot installation), the crucial ritual initiating the Navratri celebrations: 6:13 AM to 10:22 AM and 12:01 PM to 12:50 PM (Abhijit Muhurat).
The Ghatasthapana ritual involves placing a clay pot (ghat) filled with water, adorned with auspicious items like coins, rice, betel nut, cloves, and durva grass, in the northeast corner of the house. The pot is then decorated with mango leaves and a coconut wrapped in red cloth. Offerings of fruits, sweets, and other prasad are also placed around the pot. Devotees should also prepare items like turmeric, kumkum, camphor, janeu, incense sticks, mango leaves, flowers, panchamrit, jaggery, coconut, nuts, and other offerings for the puja.
The nine days are devoted to the worship of nine forms of Goddess Durga, with devotees observing fasts and prayers to achieve their desires. The auspicious arrival of the Goddess on an elephant is considered a particularly positive omen for the year ahead.
First Piper 