Chaitra Navratri 2027: Dates, Ghatasthapana & Nine Days

Last updated: September 2026 · By Acharya Alok Pandit, Divine Hindu, Jayanagar 3rd Block East, Bengaluru 560011 · ~20 min read

Chaitra Navratri 2027 begins on Wednesday 7 April and ends on Thursday 15 April: nine tithis, nine dates, nothing dropped and nothing repeated.

This page is the dated companion to our evergreen explainer, Chaitra Navratri: how the spring Navratri differs, Ghatasthapana and the road to Ram Navami. For the background — why a spring Navratri exists, how it compares with the autumn one — read that. Here you get the 2027 calendar, the day-by-day schedule, an honest account of the muhurat question, samagri, fasting and the festivals that follow.

One thing at the top. We publish no clock time for Ghatasthapana. Not because we could not find one, but because the two panchangs we checked disagree by nearly three hours on where the window closes, and that gap is a difference of rule rather than an error. A missing time you can fill from your family's panchang in a minute; a wrong one you cannot undo.

Chaitra Navratri 2027 dates: Wednesday 7 April to Thursday 15 April

Chaitra Navratri opens on Chaitra Shukla Pratipada and closes on Chaitra Shukla Navami. In 2027 those tithis land on Wednesday 7 April and Thursday 15 April.

Drik Panchang, calculated for New Delhi, gives Chaitra Ghatasthapana on Wednesday, 7 April 2027. Prokerala, also for New Delhi, gives Chaitra Navratri 2027 as beginning on April 07, Wednesday. mPanchang concurs. Two independently maintained panchangs agreeing on the first day is the standard we hold a dated page to.

The tithi itself. Pratipada begins just after sunrise on Wednesday 7 April and runs on into the small hours of Thursday 8 April. Published start and end values differ by about a minute between panchangs, which is normal and does not move the date. Because the tithi is running at sunrise on the 7th, Wednesday is unambiguously the festival day.

The udaya-tithi rule, briefly. A festival date is settled by whichever tithi is current at sunrise, not by whichever occupies most of the daylight. A tithi beginning around midday on Monday and ending around midday on Tuesday makes Tuesday the festival day, because Tuesday is the sunrise it was alive for. That one rule explains most apparent contradictions between calendars.

2027 is a clean nine days. There is no tithi kshaya in this paksha — no tithi swallowed between two sunrises and lost from the count — and no vriddhi, no tithi stretched across two sunrises and counted twice. Readers who remember an eight-day Navratri, where two Devi forms shared one morning because a tithi had dropped out, or a ten-day one where a tithi repeated, need make no such adjustment this year. Every row of the table below is its own date.

Why 7 April 2027 is also a new year morning

The sunrise that opens Chaitra Navratri opens the lunar year across much of India. On Wednesday 7 April 2027, Vikram Samvat 2084 begins and Shaka Samvat 1949 begins — the two reckonings printed side by side at the head of most Indian panchang pages.

The regional new years cluster on that tithi. Ugadi is kept in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana on 7 April 2027; Gudi Padwa in Maharashtra and the Konkan the same day. Sindhi households keep Cheti Chand, Kashmiri Pandits keep Navreh, and in Manipur the Meitei new year Sajibu Cheiraoba falls on Chaitra Shukla Pratipada too. Punjab and Tamil Nadu reckon their new year solar instead, so those fall later in April and appear in the forward calendar below.

For a household keeping both threads, the first morning carries two jobs: Ghatasthapana for the Devi, and whatever the new year asks — the gudi raised at the door, the bevu-bella prepared, the panchang read aloud. Our guide to Gudi Padwa and Ugadi covers that side of the day. There is also no adhik maas in 2027, no intercalary month anywhere in the year, so the festival months run in their ordinary sequence.

Why there are two big Navratris

The Devi is traditionally worshipped at the two seasonal joints of the year, the turn into spring and the turn into autumn, so the same nine-night pattern repeats roughly six lunar months apart. Of the two, the autumn Navratri became the great public festival while the spring one stayed largely a household observance — which is why many people have kept Sharad Navratri all their lives and never once done Ghatasthapana in April. Our evergreen explainer sets out the full comparison; this page stays on 2027.

The Ghatasthapana muhurat for 2027, and why this page publishes no time

For Ghatasthapana on 7 April 2027, Drik Panchang's New Delhi page gives one window in the early morning. Prokerala's New Delhi page gives a window that opens within a few minutes of Drik's but stays open roughly three hours longer. That is not a rounding difference and not a mistake by either publisher. It is two rules producing two answers to two slightly different questions.

The classical window. The older and simpler rule is that Ghatasthapana is performed in the first one-third of the day counted from sunrise — the pratahkala. Prokerala publishes that plain classical window: wide, easy to check against your own city's sunrise, and broadly what a purohit will describe if you ask what the rule is.

The narrowed window. Drik Panchang applies a further condition on top. Its own page states that it also considers Lagna and tries to include a Dvi-Svabhava Lagna into the calculated muhurta. That extra requirement cuts the classical window down considerably, which is why Drik's closing edge arrives so much earlier.

Both are defensible. They answer slightly different questions — when is the ritually permitted period versus which stretch inside it is the most refined — and a reader who understands that will never again be alarmed by two panchangs appearing to contradict each other.

What to do. Take the window from the panchang your family or temple already uses, or ask your purohit. If your household has followed one publisher for years, follow it again; consistency matters more than the choice between two defensible rules. Absent such a habit, the classical first-third-of-the-day rule is the safer default, because the narrower window sits inside it.

The traditional fallbacks are worth knowing too. Ghatasthapana is customarily done in the first third of the day after sunrise. It is customarily avoided during Rahu Kaal, which shifts by weekday and city and must be read off your own panchang, and some families also skip the midday stretch around the abhijit period for this installation. Where the morning is genuinely impossible — travel, illness, a working household that cannot be home — many families use the abhijit muhurat around midday instead, a long-accepted alternative rather than a compromise. All these windows are read from a panchang set to your own city, because sunrise in Bengaluru and sunrise in Amritsar are not the same event.

If it is the vidhi rather than the timing you want, our step-by-step guide to Kalash Sthapana sets out the full sequence.

Ghatasthapana step by step for 7 April 2027

What follows is the common household form. Regional and family versions differ, and where yours differs, yours is the one to follow.

1. Clean the space the evening before and gather the samagri, so nothing is hunted for at sunrise.
2. Lay the earth bed and sow the barley. Clean loose soil goes into a shallow earthen or brass vessel; barley (jau) is scattered evenly, covered with a thin layer of soil and lightly watered. The sprouts that come up over nine days are called khetri or jayanti and are traditionally read as an auspicious sign at the end.
3. Fill the kalash. A copper, brass or earthen pot is filled with clean water, gangajal added where the household keeps it. Into the water go a supari, a coin, a few grains of akshat and a sprig of durva; the neck is tied with moli.
4. Set the leaves and the coconut. Five mango or ashoka leaves are arranged around the rim, tips outward, and a coconut wrapped in red cloth is set on top, its orientation following family custom.
5. Place the kalash on the earth bed, in the north-east or facing east. Where the north-east corner is impossible, a clean place from which the worshipper faces east is the usual alternative; our note on where to place idols at home covers the same reasoning. The Devi's image or murti is set beside the kalash, usually to its right, with a red cloth, flowers, haldi and kunku.
6. Light the lamp, and decide honestly about the akhand jyot. Many families keep a ghee or oil lamp burning continuously for nine days. It is optional, and needs a sheltered position and somebody at home. Households that cannot commit light a lamp at the morning and evening puja instead, which is entirely acceptable.
7. Take the sankalp. Holding water, akshat and a flower in the right palm, the head of the household states the intention — family name, place, tithi, and that the nine days of Chaitra Navratri are being observed — then releases the water into a plate.
8. Invoke the Devi and complete the first puja. The Devi is invited into the kalash and Shailputri's worship follows with dhoop, deep, flowers, naivedya and aarti. Our Durga mantras for Navratri offer options at several lengths, and our guide to how to do aarti covers the closing.
9. Keep the daily routine. Water the grain bed each morning, light the lamp, offer flowers and naivedya, do the day's puja. On the ninth day the kalash water and sprouts are given to flowing water or the base of a plant rather than a bin.

What customarily goes into the kalash

The nine days of Chaitra Navratri 2027, day by day

The Navadurga sequence is the same in spring as in autumn: Shailputri, Brahmacharini, Chandraghanta, Kushmanda, Skandamata, Katyayani, Kalaratri, Mahagauri and Siddhidatri. Because 2027 has no kshaya and no vriddhi, each form gets its own date. The table combines date, tithi, Devi and the other observances of the day.

Sandhi Puja on 14 April. A Sandhi Puja window exists at the Ashtami–Navami junction, and households and temples that keep it need that window from a panchang. Only one publisher gives a time for it in 2027, and one source is not enough for us to print.

For the mantra and traditional offering associated with each form, our nine-day Devi worship guide goes form by form, and applies to Chaitra as to Sharad.

The nine colours: what they actually are

Every year a list of nine colours circulates, one per day. The honest answer: it is a Gujarati and Maharashtrian media-and-garba convention, keyed to the weekday on which the first day falls — which is why it changes annually and must be published fresh. It is widely and cheerfully followed, and it is not a scriptural requirement; no older text prescribes it, and a household that ignores it has observed Navratri perfectly well.

Because it is a published convention rather than a calculated one, we are not inventing a 2027 sequence. If your family or garba group circulates one, follow it; if nobody does, nothing is missing. The nine Devi forms above are the part that stays constant.

Chaitra Navratri samagri: what to keep ready before 7 April

Most of this is already in the house; a list is for catching the two or three things that are not.

Where something needs replacing, the practical categories are kalash and puja accessories and the Chaitra Navratri and Ram Navami edit.

Fasting during Chaitra Navratri 2027

There is no single Navratri fast. There are several forms, all accepted, and the first useful thing is to decide honestly which one you are keeping rather than starting the strictest and abandoning it on day four.

What phalahar food actually is

The permitted list is consistent across regions: kuttu (buckwheat) flour, singhara (water chestnut) flour, samak millet, sabudana, potatoes, sweet potato, most fruit, milk, curd, paneer, makhana, peanuts and dry fruit. Salt is sendha namak, rock salt, not table salt. Set aside is ordinary grain — wheat, rice, maida, besan — with onion, garlic, alcohol and non-vegetarian food. Beyond the core list, family custom wins.

Kanya pujan: Ashtami or Navami

Kanya pujan — young girls invited home, their feet washed, a meal of halwa, puri and kala chana served, a small gift given — is a fixed part of the observance and a moving one in the calendar. Some families keep it on Ashtami, Wednesday 14 April 2027; others on Navami, Thursday 15 April. Neither corrects the other; it is a regional and family split of long standing. Navami households will find that morning busy, since 15 April is also Rama Navami, and the usual solution is Devi puja and kanya pujan early with Rama Navami around midday.

The parana: when the fast ends

The parana, the formal breaking of the vrat, is customarily done on Thursday 15 April 2027 after the Navami puja and, where kanya pujan is kept on Navami, after the girls have eaten. Families keeping the vrat only to Ashtami break it on 14 April instead, and a smaller number continue into Dashami on 16 April. The kalash visarjan usually follows at the same time: water and barley sprouts given to flowing water or the base of a plant.

Who should not fast

This matters more than any other paragraph here. Anyone pregnant or nursing, elderly, diabetic, unwell, recovering from illness or surgery, or taking regular medication should keep a modified observance rather than a strict fast — the sattvic form above, or simply the intention and the daily puja without the food restriction. Skipping meals, going without water, or fasting alongside medication that requires food are not devotional achievements, and no tradition asks for them at the cost of health. Where a doctor's advice and family custom point different ways, follow the doctor. This article is general information about traditional observance and is not medical advice; anyone with a health condition should speak to their physician before fasting.

One safety note about the lamp

If your household keeps an akhand jyot, give it a stable, sheltered position on a metal plate, well away from cloth, curtains, paper and the draught of a fan or open window. Never leave it burning in an empty house or overnight with nobody awake. A lamp put out because it cannot be watched safely has failed at nothing; lighting the lamp at puja times instead is entirely permitted.

What is traditionally done, and what is traditionally avoided

These are customs rather than rules, and they vary by household.

Traditionally done through the nine days:

• A bath before the morning puja and clean clothes, with many households keeping something red for the Devi's place.
• Watering the barley bed each morning, and offering fresh flowers daily.
• Daily paath or japa — Durga Saptashati, the Devi Kavach, the Argala Stotram, or mantra japa on a mala.
• Aarti at least once a day.
• Sattvic food in the kitchen for the whole family, whether or not everyone is fasting.
• Kanya pujan on the family's day, and daan as the household can manage.
• Keeping the puja room clean, since the kalash is treated as an installed presence rather than an ornament.

Traditionally avoided:

• Non-vegetarian food, alcohol, onion and garlic in the house, in most observing households.
• Cutting hair and nails, and shaving, in many families, for the duration.
• Leather goods in the puja room, and in some households through the period generally.
• Quarrels, harsh speech and gossip — traditionally described as the hardest part of the vrat and the part that matters most.
• Leaving the akhand jyot or any lamp unattended.
• Moving the kalash once installed, until the visarjan on the final day.

How the nine days will be kept across India in 2027

Chaitra Navratri is less one festival kept nine ways than a shared tithi on which a dozen observances happen to sit. 7 April 2027 will look very different depending on which street you are standing in.

In Maharashtra and the Konkan the morning belongs to the gudi — the pole raised at the doorway with its bright cloth, neem and mango leaves, garland of sugar crystals and inverted vessel at the top. Ghatasthapana happens in the same house within the hour, and Maharashtrian families tend to call the day Gudi Padwa first and Navratri second. In Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana the day is Ugadi, and its sign is bevu-bella — neem and jaggery eaten together, bitter and sweet in one mouthful, the year's plain statement about what a year contains — followed by the Panchanga Shravanam, the reading of the new almanac.

Gujarat keeps Chaitri Navratri quietly, and this is not the Navratri Gujarat is famous for. The garba season is the autumn one. The spring nine days are a household vrat, a lamp, a fast and visits to the Devi's shrines, with Ambaji drawing pilgrims but nothing like the scale of Ashwin. Visitors arriving in April expecting dandiya in the streets have come six months early.

Bengal turns the usual assumption around. Chaitra Navratri is the season of Vasanti Puja, and in Bengali reckoning this spring worship is the original Durga Puja, while the autumn festival that now dominates the state is the akal bodhan, the untimely awakening, so called because it falls outside the proper season. Vasanti Puja is kept today by a modest number of households and old family thakurdalans rather than the para pandals, but its claim to seniority is real.

Rajasthan gives the third day its own character. Chaitra Tritiya, Friday 9 April 2027, is Gangaur, the Chaitra Gauri observance, when Gauri and Ishar are worshipped by women for the household's wellbeing and the images go in procession through Jaipur, Udaipur and the smaller towns. Gangaur runs on its own rhythm alongside the Navratri days rather than inside them.

Sindhi families keep Cheti Chand on the same first tithi, the new year and the observance of Jhulelal, with the behrana sahib taken in procession to water. Kashmiri Pandits keep Navreh, the new year of the Saptarishi era, whose central act is the thal — a plate arranged the previous night with rice, curd, a flower, a coin, walnuts, a mirror and the new panchang, looked at on waking so the year begins with the sight of it. In Manipur the Meitei new year Sajibu Cheiraoba falls on the same tithi, with the house cleaned, a meal cooked and offered, and families climbing the nearest hill.

In the hills the nine days are a pilgrim season: the route to Vaishno Devi in Jammu fills through Chaitra Navratri, as does Jwala Ji in Kangra with its natural flames. In eastern Uttar Pradesh the Vindhyachal temple near Mirzapur keeps its spring Navratri mela; in Assam, Kamakhya observes the Vasanti form of the nine days in a much quieter register than its June Ambubachi; and in Mysuru the Chamundeshwari temple keeps the spring Navratri with its own daily sequence, a smaller cousin of the Dasara it is better known for. Odisha keeps the Ashtami of this paksha, Wednesday 14 April 2027, as Ashokashtami.

Ram Navami on Thursday 15 April 2027, and the parana

The ninth day of Chaitra Navratri is Rama Navami. This is not two festivals that happen to touch; it is the reason the spring Navratri has the shape it does. The nine nights that begin with the Devi end with the birth observance of Shri Rama, and the Navami morning tends to belong to Siddhidatri, the midday to Shri Rama.

In practice, 15 April 2027 carries several things at once: the ninth Devi puja, kanya pujan where it is kept on Navami, the Rama Navami observance, and the parana. Households spreading the load do the Devi puja early, kanya pujan next, and keep the Rama Navami paath for the middle of the day. The kalash visarjan follows.

Our page on Ram Navami 2027 — date, puja vidhi and significance covers the ninth day on its own terms.

Festivals around Chaitra Navratri in 2027

The dates below are those we have confirmed against two independent panchangs each.

Two deliberate omissions. No 2027 date for Sharad Navratri: it falls roughly six lunar months later, in Ashwin, but we have not verified those dates to our own standard. And no date for Pohela Boishakh, because our sources split between 14 and 15 April 2027 and we do not print a date we cannot corroborate.

Visit us or order online

If you are setting up for 7 April and something is missing, our store at Divine Hindu, Jayanagar 3rd Block East, Bengaluru 560011, keeps the ordinary things a household needs for the nine days, and the same items are available online. Among them is the Goddess Maa Durga Brass Idol, a brass murti of the kind traditionally kept beside the kalash through Navratri and in the home shrine afterwards. Whether the murti is new or the one your family has had for years, the observance is the same.

Everything described here is customary observance, and practice varies genuinely and legitimately from region to region and household to household. Where your household tradition differs from this article, your household tradition is the one to follow.

Disclaimer: This article is for general cultural and informational purposes about traditional Hindu observance. All dates and tithis are drawn from published panchangs calculated for New Delhi and should be confirmed against a panchang set to your own city. No clock times for muhurat are published here, by design. Nothing on this page is medical or professional advice, and no outcome of any kind is claimed or implied for any ritual, fast or product mentioned. Anyone considering a fast should seek medical advice first.