What is Navarathri?

Namaskar everyone I am Shakthi Sathyanarayana.
I would like to wish all of you a Happy Navarathri. Thank you Sooria for asking me the the question.
Here is your reply. Well of course navarathri is celebrated for amman. I will elaborate to you as you read this article of mine. You are also right about the 500 forms of amman. All the 500 forms comes from Aathi Parasakhti. Yes all of them are celebrated during Navarathri as she is the Parasakhti.The navarathri festival season is associated with the worship of the mother Goddess conceived in the form of Durga, Lakshmi and Saraswati.

Like what I said What is Navarathri?
Well Nava means nine and rathri means nights.So what does this Nine nights means ? Let me tell you a story..........
There was once a Munivar who was cursed by Agathiyar Munivar for not respecting him and being very arrogant. Then Agathiyar Munivar cursed him of being so rude and had the character of a buffalo. So at once he turned into a buffalo a very poweful buffalo as the Munivar was a devotee of Lord Siva. And He also got his wish from Lord Brahma that he should be killed or die in the hands of the 3 male god which are Siva, Vishnu or Brahma. So finally when the buffalo headed demon or known as Mahishasuran was causing disaster. Everyone appealed to Lord Vishnu and nothing could be done but only the sakthis could bring him to an end. So for the first 3 days Durga tried killing him but it was not possible, then followed by Laxmi which was also a failure then Saraswathi tried but nothing was possible. Then on the 10th day the 3 Sakthis merged and became Parashakthi and killed the Mahishasuran. Then Parashakthi was also known as MahishasuraMardhini. So the thats why we celebrate Navarathri to praise god and as well as kill our own bad thoughts and Ego. That is what Navarathri really means.

The above picture is ThiripuraSundhari or Parashakthi.
This is a very short introduction of Navarathri and I hope it answered your question Sooria.

With Lots Of Love From

Shakthi Sathyanarayana