The Navratri Story for Kids: Nine Nights Explained

Navratri is nine nights long, celebrated four different ways in four different parts of India, and named after a goddess who takes nine forms. It is not surprising that children find it harder to explain than Diwali. It is also, once untangled, one of the most interesting festivals to tell a child about.

What the name means

Nava means nine, ratri means night. Nine nights, and the tenth day, Vijayadashami or Dussehra, that follows them. The festival honours the Devi, the goddess in her many forms, and it is fundamentally a celebration of a victory.

The story of Durga and Mahishasura

Mahishasura was a buffalo demon who won a boon: no man and no god could kill him. Secure in that, he drove the gods out of the heavens and made himself master of the three worlds. The gods, unable to touch him, did something else. Each poured their own energy into a single form, and from that combined light the goddess Durga emerged, armed by every one of them, riding a lion.

She fought Mahishasura for nine nights. He changed shape repeatedly to escape her, buffalo, lion, elephant, man, and on the tenth day she defeated him. That is what the nine nights and the tenth day commemorate.

Children usually spot the loophole immediately, and it is worth letting them enjoy it. The demon asked for protection from men and from gods, and did not think to mention goddesses. The story is quite deliberate about this.

The gods could not defeat him individually. What defeated him was everything they had, combined into one form.

The nine forms

Each of the nine nights is dedicated to a different form of the goddess, the Navadurga, and many families dress in a different colour each day to match. For a young child, nine names is a lot; it is easier to introduce the idea, that the same goddess appears as a daughter of the mountains, as a warrior, as a mother, as light itself, and let the specific names come with age.

In many parts of India the last three days are also given to Durga, Lakshmi and Saraswati in turn, strength, prosperity and knowledge, which is a shape a child can hold easily and remember.

Four festivals in one country

This is the part that confuses children who move between regions, and it is worth explaining directly. In Gujarat, Navratri is garba and dandiya, nine nights of circular dancing that go on until very late. In Bengal, it is Durga Puja, enormous decorated pandals, elaborate clay images of the goddess, and a final day when those images are carried to the river.

In Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, it is Golu or Bommai Kolu, tiered displays of dolls and figures arranged in homes, with visits between houses. In much of north India, it is Ramlila, nightly performances of the Ramayana ending with the burning of Ravana’s effigy on Dussehra.

All four are the same festival. Children find it genuinely interesting that a country can agree on when to celebrate and disagree entirely on how, and it is a good early lesson in what India actually is.

Why Rama appears too

The north Indian version commemorates a different victory on the same tenth day, Rama’s defeat of Ravana. Tradition holds that Rama invoked Durga before the battle, which is how the two stories connect. For a child, the simplest framing is that Dussehra marks a victory of good over evil, and different regions remember a different one.

Marking it at home

Whichever tradition your family follows, there are things a child can do rather than watch. Learning one of the Devi shlokas is a good anchor, and the Saraswati Vandana fits beautifully on the day given to her, particularly as many families mark Vijayadashami as an auspicious day to begin learning something new.

That custom, Vidyarambham, starting a child’s education on the tenth day, is itself worth explaining. A festival that ends by beginning something is an idea children find satisfying.

Our classes on Indian festivals, shlokas and the epics help children understand the stories behind the celebrations they already enjoy. If you would like your child to know why the lamps are lit and the dolls are arranged, a free trial class is an easy first step.