Whereas Navratri is about to start on Monday, the city temples are gearing up for the celebrations in a grand manner, and the residents are also excited about the upcoming festival season. This time, Navratri will continue for 10 days (from September 22 until October 1), and devotees will get one additional day to worship Goddess Durga in her nine forms. The celebrations will end with Dussehra celebrations on October 2. Meanwhile, the residents, after the completion of Pitar Paksh (shradhs), were also seen making arrangements at home for welcoming Goddess Durga to their homes and bringing prosperity for them.The grand celebrations will take place at all city temples, but the major attraction will be Durga Mata Mandir near Jagraon Bridge, where all the nine forms of Goddess Durga are installed in the temple premises, and devotees in large numbers come to the temple seeking blessings. Other city temples are also decorated ahead of the Navratri celebrations.A devotee, Rajesh Sharma from Civil Lines, said, “We should all pray to the Goddess Durga to take care of her children as in the past few days there were floods, cloud bursting, and several other things happened at our holy shrines as well, especially Vaishno Devi, as the temple never remained closed for so many days.” He said they will go to a nearby temple and worship the goddess, and at home, there will be Akhand Jyoti round the clock.Meanwhile, another devotee from Chander Nagar, Harish Khanna, claimed that they constructed their new house on Monday. They will perform a special puja in their new house as it is the best day for doing anything new. He said that it is from the age-old traditions that Navratri holds special importance among the Hindus, and when it comes to entering some new phase of life, people prefer doing it on auspicious days.Pardeep Dhall from Shree Geeta Mandir, Vikas Nagar at Pakhowal Road, said, “We will light 108 jyots to worship Goddess Durga on Monday morning, where devotees will come and pray to her for the well-being of mankind.” He said Punjab and some other states have gone through a lot due to floods and excessive rainfall, so they will pray to the goddess to be kind and keep Her hand on everybody. He claimed that a group of 40 ladies have prepared for performing Dandiya, and they have practised a lot. First on Monday and then on September 23, they will perform in the temple.
