Sri Rama Navami Festival

Sri Rama Navami festival is celebrated all over India, which marks the birth of Lord Rama. He was the seventh incarnation of Lord Vishnu, who came to the world to kill the demon king Ravana. This grand festival occurs on the ninth day of of Shukla Paksha in the month of Chaitra, which is during March-April.

In South India, from Ugadi for the next 9 days, we celebrate the Vasantha Navarathri. It concludes with this important festival.

In Andhra Pradesh of South India, Sri Rama Navami festival is celebrated with great religious fervour and devotion, in the abode of Sitarama Temple at Bhadrachalam of Khammam District, as "Sree Sitarama Kalyana Mahotsav". This celebration at Bhadrachalam temple attracts as many as three lakhs of devotees every year. It is celebrated as the wedding ceremony between Lord Rama and Sita, as a role play where every aspect of human feelings is covered. This celebration has been in practice around 400 years, started during the reign of Nizams, and still it is continued in all its glory.

This festival is celebrated at Udupi Srikrishna Temple also in a grand way .

Besides the usual fasting and prayers, a most delightful tradition that is practiced as a part of the Ram Navami celebrations in south India is the narration of stories from the epic "Ramayana".

Rama is considered as the epitome of perfection, fulfilling all his duties towards both family and subjects. Talented storytellers are known to narrate episodes of the Ramayana with the local flavour and humour adding to it. This is essentially a folk tradition and still continues in villages and small towns.

For this important festival, the "Prasadams" offered are Panakam, butter milk, Vadai Paruppu and Panchaamirutham, which are prepared at the temples and distributed as prasadams to the devotees.

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