When is Maha Navami 2028? Tuesday, 26 September

Maha Navami 2028 is on Tuesday, 26 September. In New Delhi, Shukla Navami runs from 6:59 AM on 26 September to 8:09 AM on 27 September. On 26 September, Aparahna (afternoon) is 1:24 PM – 3:48 PM; Shukla Navami holds through all of it. On 27 September, Aparahna (afternoon) is 1:24 PM – 3:48 PM; Shukla Navami does not hold in it.

Aparahna (afternoon): 1:24 PM to 3:48 PM (New Delhi).

Aparahna is the fourth of five equal parts of the day from local sunrise to sunset; Maha Navami is kept on the day Navami holds then. It shifts with each city's sunrise and sunset. Choose your city for your own times.

Shukla Navami runs 26 Sept, 06:59 → 27 Sept, 08:09.

In Bengal the Navami homa and bhog close the main worship, and Dhunuchi naach is danced before the idol. In the North it is often the day of Kanya Pujan and the breaking of the Navratri fast. In Mysore and much of the South, Ayudha Puja on Navami sets the workshop, the office, the car and the child's schoolbooks before Saraswati, not to be used again until Vijayadashami.

Mysore's Navami is the height of the Dasara, with the palace lit and the earlier durbar tradition; at Kollur, Sringeri and other Devi shrines the Navami puja and Chandi homa draw large crowds. The day carries the sense of a task completed and a threshold about to be crossed.

By the tradition that maps the Durga Saptashati onto the nine nights, the war on Mahishasura ended on Navami, when the Goddess pinned the buffalo-demon and struck off his head as he half-emerged in man-form — Mahishasuramardini. The tenth day, Vijayadashami, is the victory; Navami is its last and decisive night.

Source: Durga Saptashati — the slaying of Mahishasura

The Navami homa is part of the classical Durga Puja kalpa; Ayudha Puja on Navami is recorded in South Indian temple and royal practice — the Vijayanagara and Mysore courts kept it as a martial rite, worshipping the army's weapons before the Dasara.

• Durga Saptashati — the slaying of Mahishasura
• Wikipedia — Maha Navami

1. The last day of Navratri worship ends with a havan; in the North, girls are fed and worshipped as the Goddess in kanya pujan.
2. In the South it is Ayudha Puja: tools, vehicles, instruments and books are cleaned, marked with sandal and kumkum and worshipped, and in Kerala books rest before Saraswati until Vijayadashami.
3. In Bengal it is the last full day of the puja, with the Navami bhog and dhunuchi dancing before the Goddess in the evening.

• Bengal, Odisha, Assam. Navami homa and bhog, Dhunuchi naach, and the closing of the main Durga Puja worship.
• South India (Mysore, Tamil Nadu, Kerala). Ayudha Puja and Saraswati Puja — tools, vehicles, instruments and books worshipped and set aside; the height of Mysore Dasara.

• Kanya bhoj — Halwa, puri and kala chana.
• Sundal and payasam — Offered at the Ayudha Puja in the South.
• Navami bhog — Bengal's pandal feast; many Shakta households also cook mutton.

Maha Navami is kept on the day when Navami of Ashwin Shukla paksha prevails in the Aparahna (afternoon). That day is Tuesday, 26 September 2028, and the Aparahna is from 1:24 PM to 3:48 PM. Navami holds the whole of the Aparahna (afternoon) on this day. It holds none of it on the day before or the day after.

in the Aparahna (afternoon)

Maha Navami is Ashwin Shukla Navami — the ninth tithi of the bright fortnight of Ashwin, the day before Vijayadashami. Where Ashtami and Navami compress or overlap into one civil day, the regional almanac fixes the puja; the festival is in September or October.

A lunar date: Navami of the bright half of Ashwin drifts about 11 days earlier each solar year, then jumps back ~19 days when a leap (Adhika) month is inserted.