According to official sources, around 60,000 devotees from all over India visited the holy shrine of Shri Mata Vaishno Devi to seek the blessings of the Divine Mother in her three manifestations during the first two days of the Chaitra Navratras that started on March 27.

M K Dwivedi, additional Chief Executive Officer of the shrine board, said that more than 6.5 million pilgrims visit the shrine every year, and the number of pilgrims is rising year-on-year.

Mr. Dwivedi also said that since January, the total number of pilgrims to have visited the shrine has gone up to 12.52 lakh.

He also said that the figure is 1.87 lakh more than the matching period of the last year.

Moreover, the shrine board has provided better facilities to the devotees and made better arrangements especially for the Navratras.

The devotees can easily buy traditional goods like diyas, coconuts, matkas, dupattas for women, wrist-bands, special garlands made of marigold and other flowers, beads, and agarbatti sticks from the temporary stalls, which are set up by the road side or near the temples.

Chaitra Navratri starts with the beginning of the Hindu New Year “VIKRAM SAMBAT” i.e the 1st day of the month of Chaitra. It is most famous in Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and in other parts of North India.

Chaitra Navratra is known by different names like Ram Navratri, Vasant Navratri, Basant Navrathri and some people also refer it as Spring Navaratras.