Rama Navami

Rama Navami is a spring Hindu festival that celebrates the birthday of the Hindu God Lord Rama. He is particularly important to the Vaishnavism tradition of Hinduism, as the seventh avatar of God Vishnu.[2][3] The festival celebrates the descent of Vishnu as shri Rama avatar, through his birth to King Dasharatha and Queen Kausalya in Ayodhya.[4] The festival is a part of the spring Navratri, and falls on the ninth day of the bright half (Shukla Paksha) in the Hindu calendar month of Chaitra. This typically occurs in the Gregorian months of March or April every year.[5] Rama Navami is an optional government holiday in India.[6]

Rama Navami
Baby Rama (Ram Lalla)
TypeHindu
SignificanceBirthday of Rama
CelebrationsLast day of Chaitra Navratri
ObservancesPuja, Vrata (fast), Ramayana Katha recitation, Havan, Dāna (charity), Music Festival
DateNinth day of Chaitra (Chaitra Shukla Paksha Navami)
2020 date2 April (Thu)[1]
2021 date21 April (Wed)[1]
FrequencyAnnual

The day is marked by Rama Katha recitals, or reading of Rama stories including the Hindu sacred epic Ramayana. Some Vaishnava Hindus visit a temple, others pray within their home, and some participate in a bhajan or kirtan with music as a part of puja and aarti.[7] Some devotees mark the event by taking miniature statues of the infant Rama, washing it and clothing it, then placing it in a cradle. Charitable events and community meals are also organized. The festival is an occasion for moral reflection for many Hindus.[2][8] Some mark this day by vrata (fasting).[2][9]

The important celebrations on this day take place at Ayodhya and Sita Samahit Sthal (Uttar Pradesh), Sitamarhi (Bihar),[10] Janakpurdham (Nepal), Bhadrachalam (Telangana), Kodandarama Temple, Vontimitta (Andhra Pradesh) and Rameswaram (Tamil Nadu). Rathayatras, the chariot processions, also known as Shobha yatras of Rama, Sita, his brother Lakshmana and Hanuman, are taken out at several places.[2][11][12] In Ayodhya, many take a dip in the sacred river Sarayu and then visit the Rama temple.[4] As per calculations, Rama Navami may actually have been on 10 January 5114 BCE. This is a particularly interesting date, for it helps in establishing the authenticity and historicity of Lord Rama and the events of Ramayana.

Celebrations
Baby Rama in a cradle at Chinawal village temple, Maharashtra

The day is the ninth and last day of Chaitra Navaratri (not to be confused with the autumn Navratri).[5] It celebrates the arrival of Vishnu's 7th avatar, god Rama. It is marked by the faithfuls with puja (devotional worship) such as bhajan and kirtan, by fasting and reading passages about Rama's life. Special cities in the Ramayana legends about Rama's life observe major celebrations.[5] These include Ayodhya (Uttar Pradesh), Rameswaram (Tamil Nadu), Bhadrachalam (Telangana) and Sitamarhi (Bihar). Some locations organize Rath-yatras (chariot processions), while some celebrate it as the wedding anniversary festival (Kalyanotsavam) of Rama and Sita.[4]

While the festival is named after Rama, the festival typically includes reverence for Sita, Lakshmana and Hanumana given their importance in Rama's story.[13] Some Vaishnava Hindus observe the festival in Hindu temples, some observe it within their homes.[14] Surya, the Hindu sun god, is a part of the worship and ceremonies in some communities.[14] Some Vaishnava communities observe all nine days of Chaitra Navaratri remembering Rama, and reading the Ramayana, with some temples organizing special discussion sessions in the evening.[14] Charitable events to help those in need and community meals are organized by temples and Vaishnava organizations, and for many Hindus it is an occasion for moral reflection.[2]

In Karnataka, Sri Ramanavami is celebrated by the local Mandalis (organizations) at some places even on footpaths, dispersing free panaka (jaggery and crushed muskmelon juice) and some food. Additionally, in Bengaluru, Karnataka, the Sree Ramaseva Mandali, R.C.T (R.) Chamrajpet, organizes India's most prestigious, month-long classical music festival. The uniqueness of this 80 years old musical extravaganza is that celebrated Indian classical musicians, irrespective of their religion, from both genres – Carnatic and Hindustani – descend down to offer their musical rendition to Lord Sri Rama and the assembled audience.[15]

Bhadrachalam temple in Telangana is one of the major Rama Navami celebration sites.[4]

In eastern Indian states such as Odisha, Jharkhand, and West Bengal, the Jagannath temples and regional Vaishnava community observe Rama Navami, and treat it as the day when preparations begin for their annual Jagannath Ratha Yatra in summer.[16][17]

Devotees associated with ISKCON fast through the daylight hours.[14] A number of ISKCON temples introduced a more prominent celebration of the occasion of the holiday with the view of addressing needs of growing native Hindu congregation. It is however always was a notable calendar event on the traditional Gaurabda calendar with a specific additional requirement of fasting by devotees.[18]

Significance

The Significance of the Festival is indicates the victory of goodness on evil and establishment of the Dharma to beat the Adharma. Ram Navami festival celebration starts with the Jal (water) offering in the early morning to the God Sun (A Deity) to get blessings from him. People also beliefs that the God Sun as an ancestor of the Lord Rama.[19]

Outside India

Rama Navami is one of the Hindu festivals that is celebrated by the Indian Hindu diaspora with roots in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. The descendants of Indian indentured servants/slaves who were forced to leave India by engineering a famine in these places by the then British rule, and then promised for job were shipped to colonial South Africa before 1910 to work in British owned plantations and mines, thereafter lived through the South African Apartheid regime, continued to celebrate Ram Navami by reciting Ramayana, and by singing bhajans of Tyagaraja and Bhadrachala Ramdas. The tradition continues in contemporary times in the Hindu temples of Durban every year.[20]

Similarly in Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, Suriname, Jamaica, other Caribbean countries, Mauritius, Malaysia, Singapore, and many other countries Hindu descendants of colonial era indentured workers/slaves forced by the British government from India have continued to observe Ram Navami along with their other traditional festivals.[21]

It is also celebrated by Hindus in Fiji, and those Fiji Hindus who have re-migrated elsewhere.[22]

Why Is Ram Navami Celebrated

Rama Navami is one of the Hindu festivals that is celebrated by the Indian Hindu diaspora with roots in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.

Ram Navami celebrates the birth of the seventh incarnation of Lord Vishnu. Lord Ram appeared in Ayodhya as the son of King Dasharath and Queen Kaushalya in the Raghu Kula (Solar Dynasty). He was born on the ninth day of Chaitra month in the noon. This day coincides with the ninth day of Chaitra Navratri, on which is the day when the fasting concludes. As per the Gregorian calendar, the festival falls in the month of March or April.

The celebration of Ram Navami is done with devotion and joy. The house is decorated and Deity idols are beautifully decorated with flowers, clothes and jewels. The celebrations include fasting, singing of devotional songs, visiting temple and recitation of hymns from Ram Charitmanas. In some places, the celebrations start from the first day of Chaitra Navratri until Navami. While Ram Lila- a theatrical enactment of Ramayana, recitation of Ramayan, chariot procession of Ram, Sita and Laxman idols is done, discourse on Ramayana by story-tellers and satsangs are organized at few places.

See also

References and notes
  1. https://www.timeanddate.com/holidays/india/rama-navami
  2. Ram Navami BBC.
  3. The nine-day festival of Navratri leading up to Sri Rama Navami has bhajans, kirtans and discourses in store for devotees Archived 7 April 2009 at the Wayback Machine Indian Express, Friday, 31 March 2006.
  4. Hindus around the world celebrate Ram Navami today, DNA, 8 April 2014
  5. James G. Lochtefeld (2002). The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hinduism: N-Z. The Rosen Publishing Group. p. 562. ISBN 978-0-8239-3180-4.
  6. Holiday Calendar, High Court of Karnataka, Government of Karnataka
  7. Ramnavami The Times of India, 2 April 2009.
  8. "President and PM greet people as India observes Ram Navami today". IANS. news.biharprabha.com. Retrieved 8 April 2014.
  9. Ramnavami Govt. of India Portal.
  10. Sitamarhi, Encyclopedia Britannica (2014), Quote: "A large Ramanavami fair, celebrating the birth of Lord Rama, is held in spring with considerable trade in pottery, spices, brass ware, and cotton cloth. A cattle fair held in Sitamarhi is the largest in Bihar state. The town is sacred as the birthplace of the goddess Sita (also called Janaki), the wife of Rama."
  11. On Ram Navami, we celebrate our love for the ideal Archived 7 April 2009 at the Wayback Machine Indian Express, Monday, 31 March 2003.
  12. Shobha yatra on Ram Navami eve Archived 7 April 2009 at the Wayback Machine Indian Express, Thursday, 25 March 1999.
  13. Steven Rosen (2006). Essential Hinduism. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 212. ISBN 978-0-275-99006-0.
  14. Constance A Jones (2011). J. Gordon Melton (ed.). Religious Celebrations: An Encyclopedia of Holidays, Festivals, Solemn Observances, and Spiritual Commemorations. ABC-CLIO. pp. 739–740. ISBN 978-1-59884-206-7.
  15. "Sree Ramaseva Mandali, Retrospect | Our Impact". www.ramanavami.org.
  16. Logs for Trinity’s chariots arrive in Odisha’s Puri town, Odisha Sun Times (24 January 2016)
  17. All set for grand Ram Navami Shobhayatra, The Hitavada (15 Apr 2016)
  18. Zaidman, N. (2000). "The Integration of Indian Immigrants to Temples Run by North Americans". Social Compass. 47 (2): 205–219. doi:10.1177/003776800047002005. Another example of a religious enterprise initiated by a board member was the organization of Lord Ramachandra Appearance Day (Sri Ram Navami).
  19. "SIGNIFICANCE OF RAM NAVAMI FESTIVAL". Speaking Tree.
  20. Paula Richman (2008), Ways of Celebrating Ram's Birth: Ramayana Week in Durban, South Africa, Religions Of South Asia, Volume 2 Issue 2, pages 109–133
  21. Steven Vertovec (1992). Hindu Trinidad: Religion, Ethnicity and Socio-Economic Change. Macmillan Academic. p. 211. ISBN 978-0-333-53505-9.
  22. Brian A. Hatcher (2015). Hinduism in the Modern World. Routledge. pp. 116–117. ISBN 978-1-135-04631-6.
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