Vrat and Fasting GuideNavratri fasting
Navratri fasting in plain words: the nine days, common rules (no grain, onion or garlic), vrat flours, sendha namak, what to avoid, and how to keep the fast safely at work.
Many families fast during all nine days of Navratri (twice a year, in spring and in autumn), or on the first and last day, or on the eighth. The usual rules, which vary by family, are:
- No grains or pulses, so no wheat, rice, dal or normal flour.
- No onion, garlic, meat, eggs or alcohol.
- Allowed: potatoes, sweet potatoes, pumpkin, raw banana, gourds, fruits, milk, curd, paneer, nuts, makhana and the vrat flours: buckwheat (kuttu), water chestnut (singhara), amaranth (rajgira) and sabudana (tapioca pearls).
- Salt: rock salt (sendha namak) in place of ordinary salt.
- Clean, simple cooking in fresh oil or ghee, and fresh utensils in some homes.
Some people keep an all-fruit fast, and some break it each evening with one meal. At the end, on the eighth or ninth day, kanya pujan (feeding young girls) is done in many homes; see the Navratri puja.
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This page describes common practice. Families differ, and the tradition itself says that illness and age are good reasons to reduce a fast. It is not medical advice: please talk to a doctor if you have a health condition. Times for fasts depend on the panchang for your city.