Fasting as ritual
The ritual of Navratri fasting is common among most Indian communities. During Navratri, people keep a long fast of eight or nine days. In some communities, such as in Bengal, people usually observe an eight-day long fast and the fast is broken on the eight day with the Kanya Puja or Kanika Pujan, which is a tradition of worshipping nine young girls and feeding them and bestowing gifts and clothes to them. During all the days of the fast, the devotees usually get up early in the morning and after their morning bath offer their prayers to the deity.Fasting diet or what to eat during Navratri fast
In some communities, people actually observe nirahar and nirjala fast where they do not eat or drink anything throughout the day and have special Navratri veg food in the evening only after offering their prayers. Others follow partial fasting where they eat only certain types of food and abstain strictly from alcohol, non-vegetarian food and dishes containing onion, garlic, common salt, etc.The commonly eaten and savoured dishes of Navratri days are singhare ka ate ki poori or kuttu ki ate ka poori, dishes made from potato and saboo dana, motia pulao, milk and coconut laddoos, kulhad ki kheer, lauki ka halwa, lauki ka kheer, Saboodana khichdi, cucumber raita. These specially prepared dishes are infinitely relished. But these dishes are to be prepared with Sendha Namak or rock salt and not the normal salt. Drinking beverages like tea, coffee and milk is allowed during these days. Dishes made of sago and potato is generally consumed by the people, when they observe fast on Navratri. Sendha namak (rock salt) is used instead of common salt, for cooking on the festival. Fruits and fruit salads are eaten in plenty. Keeping pace with the busy modern life, nowadays, ready-to-eat Navratri special snacks, dishes and proper food are available in the hotels and restaurants that are specially customized to entertain Navratri fasting devotees. This saves the effort of cooking after the long tiring day of fast. These special menus on offer are a great hit in the recent times in the cities where a large number of women are working.
Navratri fast is broken on the eighth or ninth day with the ritual of worshipping young girls and offering them the Navratri Prasad comprising traditionally prepared puris that are actually deep fried Indian bread, halwa which is a sweet dish made of suji and curry made from Bengal gram. These dishes are also consumed by the devotees themselves to break their fast after the ritual of kanya Pujan is over.
