14/10/2023 சனிக்கிழமை
காலை 10:45 – 11:45
மாலை 5:30 – 7:30
குரு ஹோரை இரவு 9:00 – 10:00
கொலு வைக்க உகந்த நேரம்
15/10/2023 ஞாயிற்றுக்கிழமை
பிரம்ம முகூர்த்தம் காலை 3 – 4:30
குரு ஹோரை காலை 11:00 – 12:00
Suppose if you are not able to keep kolu on all the nine days, you can keep it just for 3 days. Usually last set of 3 days would be fine as you can celebrate Saraswathi pooja along with golu setup 🙂
For keeping golu at home, there are certain procedures to be followed in arranging the dolls in steps/tier. All these details are shared below. These are the pictures of our last year golu. I have updated our last year’s golu picture below. I was super excited to see my Mil’s golu as we have bought Dasavathar and Ashta lakshmi set with some new idols.
DISCLAIMER : The information & pictures I have shared below are completely based on our house golu. It may differ slightly with the authentic ones. Friends please excuse. Please leave your thoughts in comment section if anything needs to be corrected!
Here is the picture of my MIL’s Golu 🙂
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Readymade golu steps or steps made using tables and boxes ( number of steps should be 3,5,7 or9) (refer picture for Golu stand/golu padi)
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A white cloth ( dhoti/Veshti) OR some colorful sarees.
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Safety pins & bell pins for tucking the cloth with the stand.
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Kalasam/Kalash/Poorana kumbham (an auspicious set up of brass pot/Sombu with rice, dal covered with mango leaves and coconut on top of it)
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Mirror
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Marapachi dolls ( Raja,Rani), New idols of gods or the ones you use traditionally.
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Dasavatharam set, Ashta lakshmi set, Ganesha set & kalyana set (optional to keep)
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Idols of saints, freedom fighters & some kids toys (whichever you have in your house)
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A set of serial light and some decorative lamps.
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Flower pond
- Things for making park and other creative ideas
- Take bath daily( Preferrably Head bath) on all the 9 days.
- Wear clean clothes.
- Do not eat non-veg food if possible no onion, no garlic veg food.
- Draw small kolam everyday in front of golu
- Offer flowers to God in the display daily.
- Light lamp in the morning and evening.
- Offer some neivedyam both in the morning and evening. You can keep some rice varieties in the morning and have the same for your lunch. Keep some sundal varieties or sweets in the evening. If you are not able to prepare any special recipes for neivedyam, keep some fruits, kalkandu/ rock candy, jaggery or dry grapes/ raisins.
- Do Mangala harathi and recite some slokhas everyday.
- Invite & give thamboolam for married ladies and young girls in the evening.
- You should study in front of Saraswathi on Vijayadasami day.
- Do not stitch the clothes at home during these nine days.
- Do not cut your nails. Do not cut the hair. Avoid hair cut even in saloon
- Do not dust your house ( Otrai adikarathu) but you should sweep your house regularly.
- Do not eat non-veg food
- Do not study on Saraswathi pooja day.
- Avoid travelling to places by locking your house if you keep golu. Try to be at home during pooja time if you are a working women.
- Most importantly, do not fight with anyone at home. Try to be calm and happy !
Three days before golu,u have to put Mulaipari ( ie. you should grow grains in a plate filled with sand. U can use methi seeds, horsegram or ragi). For this, wash and soak the grains overnight. The next day drain the water & set aside. Take a small tray with rim and fill it half with sand. stud the grains and spread a layer of sand over it. Sprinkle some water and keep it in sun for few hours & in shade for two days. Sprinkle water whenever needed(never pour water). Small plants will come up. U should keep this in front of the golu. So keep it ready. Refer above for DO’s & DONT’s.
- On mahalaya amavasya day, Golu steps are to be set by covering with white dhothi cloth or silk saree ( No problem even if its an old saree, just wash and use it) and it has to be ready. U can use the readymade golu padi/Golu steps or use some old boxes, tables, chairs etc to make steps. But keep in mind, the munber of steps should be 3, 5, 7 or 9. Keep the golu steps in the corner of the house(facing East or North) by resting on the wall. Usually Golu is kept facing east.
You can arrange the dolls on amavasya day night after 6pm. Keep the kalasam on the next day during paatimugam / Pradhamai time. Remember if you have arranged all the dolls and kept the kalasam, you should start doing the pooja with neivedyam. Keeping Kalasam is more important. No matter even if you arrange all the dolls, keep the kalasam at the right time and start the pooja. Do not keep the kalasam on Amavasya day. Please check drikpanchang.com for exact timings for kalasa avaahanam on prathamai day as per your place.
- Kalasam should be placed in the center of the top most step or in the last step. Please follow it as per your acharya’s advice. My MIL usually keeps in the first step.
- For making kalasam, take a brass pot/sombu and fill it with rice and toor dal with some coins till its neck. Alternatively you can fill the kalasam with water adding cardamom, jathikai and other scented spices along with some coins. But I feel placing rice in kalasam is better than water as you cannot change the water during these 9 days. Then keep mango leaves in the sides and place a coconut over it. (Refer picture). The mango leaves should not be changed even if they go dry. Behind the kalasam, you should place a mirror. Here kalasam is considered as Goddess Durga. So keep a mirror such that kalasam should be seen on it.
- In the first step, keep the kalasam in the center. Next to kalasam on both the sides, you should keep Ganesha, Durga, Lakshmi & Saraswathi idols. Alternately, you can keep the kalasam in the bottom of golu by placing it on a plank.
- In the second step, you should keep two marapachi dolls (wooden dolls, see the arrow) a pair of male & female in the center by wearing saree, jewels and dhoti and you can decorate the couples as you wish. Arrange the other dieties like Vishnu, Shiva and Dasavathar set, Krishna set etc on the second and third steps. There is no hard and fast rule as to which deity goes where, but generally the top steps are reserved for deities, while the bottom steps are occupied by animal, human and inanimate statues.
- In the fourth step, you can keep some statues of saints/ guru like Ramanar, Meera, Ramakrishna paramahamsa & other mahans. Also you can keep the statues of freedom fighters & world famous personalities. (We din’t have those idols. So we have kept meera with other idols).
- In the fifth(last) step chettiar bommai has to be kept in the center. In front of the chettiar bommai, arrange a shop like thing by keeping dals, rice, chillies in small plates ( Refer picture).
- On the both sides of chettiar bommai, you can keep statues of other human beings, animals, birds and inanimate statues.
After arranging all these dolls, draw a rangoli in front of the golu ( using rice flour & colour powders) and keep a big basin filled with water and decorated with flowers. On the sides of Golu, place two lamps( vilakku) and lit them. Keep the mulaipari in the side of golu or infront of it. The most important thing on all these nine days is once you keep the golu, you should not close the house without doing pooja for any reasons like travel etc. If you are a working women, do the pooja in the morning and evening after coming from the office. U should light the lamps in morning as well as evening and do pooja by offering some sweets and sundal.
One of the most important ritual in Golu is exchanging thamboolam. U should invite young girls, ladies to see the golu and honour them by giving thamboolam and prasadam. People usually say that we should not sleep in the afternoon as we have to do pooja in the evening. Suppose if you sleep, its better to take bath before doing the pooja.
On each day of Navratri, a sundal variety has to be done for prasadam. The scientific reason behind offering sundal is that during the months of September-october, people get easily tired and fell ill due to weather. So it is prescribed to have protein rich foods to rejuvenate ourselves. Another theory is that sundal is offered to appease Nava grahas i.e nine planets. What matters ultimately is that of all the dishes should be made from the nava-dhanyas during Navratri.
Please check my post on Navaratri Neivedyam Recipes for 9 days to decide the dish.
If you have used water in the kalasam, sprinkle some water on your family members and pour the remaining water to thulasi plant or some trees. If you had put rice & dal in the kalasam, use it for cooking. Use the coconut in the kalasam for cooking or make some sweets with it. Take the coins and keep in the safe. Remove the keerai from mulaipari and use it for cooking Or transfer the mulaipari to a pot and grow it further.
Please refer my Navratri full collection for more recipes.
Also refer my Navratri recipes for 9 days – A table of South Indian ( Tamil nadu, Andhra) and North Indian recipes to offer God.
- Easy sweet sundal using lobia/Karamani
- Green gram sweet sundal & spicy sundal
- Rangoli sundal/Multi grain sundal
- White Chana sundal/Kondakadalai sundal
- Sweet corn sundal – Sweet n spicy versions
- Instant Karamani sundal
- Rajma sundal
- Peanut sundal
- Moong dal sundal
- Rava kesari
- Medhu vada with video
- Coconut ladoo
- Moong dal ladoo
- Rava ladoo
- Paneer Ladoo
- Aval/Poha ladoo
- Millets ladoo
- Sweet pongal
- Lemon rice
- Tamarind rice
- Coconut rice
- Curd rice
- Lemon poha
- 12 Payasam/Kheer recipes
- Sabudana Vada
- Anjaneyar Kovil pepper vada
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