Celebrating Navratri Far From Home: A Diaspora Guide to the Nine Nights

It is the first night of Navratri, and somewhere in Ahmedabad, twenty thousand people are dancing garba under open skies. The dhol is relentless, the chaniya cholis blur into spirals of color, and the air smells of marigold and sweat and devotion. You see the videos on Instagram. You hear the music through your cousin's shaky FaceTime call. And you are sitting in your living room in Houston or Birmingham, wondering if whatever you do tonight could possibly count.

It counts. It has always counted. The nine nights of Navratri are not a spectacle that requires a specific geography — they are a spiritual technology for transformation. Maa Durga does not check your postal code before accepting your devotion.

Ghat Sthapana: starting the nine nights right

The first day of Navratri begins with Ghat Sthapana (also called Kalash Sthapana) — the installation of a sacred pot that symbolizes the presence of the Goddess for the next nine days. You can do this in your apartment:

1. Clean a corner of your home. Lay a red or yellow cloth.
2. Fill a brass or copper kalash (pot) with water. Place a coconut wrapped with mango leaves on top.
3. Sow barley seeds in a bed of soil nearby — they will sprout over nine days, symbolizing creation and fertility.
4. Light a diya that you will try to keep burning (or relight daily) for the duration.
5. Recite the Durga Saptashati or simply invoke Maa Durga with a heartfelt prayer.

The barley seeds are a beautiful tradition to maintain abroad — watching them sprout each day gives Navratri a living, growing dimension that children especially respond to.

The nine forms: one Devi per night

Each of the nine nights is dedicated to a specific form of the Goddess. Even if you cannot do elaborate puja, simply knowing which Devi you are honoring each night adds depth to the observance:

Finding garba and dandiya abroad

The social dimension of Navratri — garba, dandiya, community — is often what NRIs miss most. But the diaspora has built remarkable infrastructure for this:

• Major US cities — Houston, Chicago, New Jersey, and the Bay Area host massive garba events. Sharad Navratri events in the US often rival mid-sized Indian cities in scale.
• UK — Leicester, London (Wembley), and Birmingham have vibrant Navratri communities. Leicester's Navratri is one of the largest outside India.
• Canada — Toronto and Vancouver host multiple events across the nine nights.
• Australia — Sydney and Melbourne's Indian communities organize garba nights, often at community halls.
• Search locally — Facebook groups, Eventbrite, and local Indian association newsletters are your best discovery tools.

Fasting abroad: what works

Navratri fasting (vrat) is entirely doable abroad. The staples — sabudana (tapioca pearls), kuttu ka atta (buckwheat flour), singhara atta (water chestnut flour), and sendha namak (rock salt) — are available at Indian grocery stores in most diaspora cities. Amazon carries all of these as well. For those with demanding work schedules, a modified fast — one sattvic meal and fruits through the day — is widely practiced and respected.

The point of the fast is not deprivation but redirection — turning the energy you normally spend on food toward inner reflection and devotion. Even partial observance carries significance.

Navratri is not about where you dance. It is about what you surrender. The nine nights work their transformation wherever you are.