Ram Navami 2027: the birthday of Rama
Ram Navami is the birthday of Rama, kept on the ninth day of the bright half of Chaitra. It closes the nine days of Chaitra Navratri, and in temples the birth is marked at midday with a cradle and a shower of flowers.
When it falls next
Ram Navami in each region
What Ram Navami is
Rama, the seventh avatar of Vishnu in the tradition, was born in Ayodhya to King Dasharatha and Queen Kaushalya. The Ramayana tells of his exile, of Sita's rescue and of his return, and families hold him up as the model of a just king and a dutiful son.
In many homes the Ramayana, or the Ramcharitmanas, is read through the nine days of Chaitra Navratri so that it ends on Ram Navami.
How families keep it at home
Many keep a fast until midday, the hour of the birth in the tradition. At noon the family gathers in the puja ghar, an image of the infant Rama is laid in a small cradle, and the cradle is rocked to songs of his birth.
Flowers and gulal are scattered, aarti is done, and a prasad is shared: panakam, a cool drink of jaggery and pepper, and sunthavada, a sweet of dry ginger, in many Marathi homes.
In the evening families go to a Ram temple, where bhajans and kirtan go on into the night, and some homes read the Ram Raksha Stotra.
How it differs by region
In Maharashtra Ram temples keep a festival of several days, with kirtans each evening, ending with the birth at noon on the navami.
In Ayodhya the day is kept with great crowds at the river and at Rama's birthplace, and processions carry images of Rama, Sita, Lakshman and Hanuman.
In the south many families keep Sri Rama Navami as the end of a nine-day festival, and in Telangana the wedding of Rama and Sita is celebrated on the day at Bhadrachalam.
How its date is set
Ram Navami is the navami of the bright half of Chaitra, kept on the day the navami holds at midday, the madhyahna, when Rama is held to have been born.
Read the Rama aarti and the Ram Raksha Stotra, and see the Ayodhya Ram Mandir card.