Durga Ashtami, also called Maha Ashtami, is regarded by many as the high point of the autumn Navratri. Weapons and tools are placed before the goddess in the Ayudha Puja, the Kanya Puja honours pre-adolescent girls with food and gifts, and in the Durga Puja tradition the day includes the intense Sandhi Puja that straddles the junction of the eighth and ninth tithis.
The day is the eighth tithi (Ashtami) of the waxing fortnight of Ashwina. Where a household breaks its Navratri fast on this day rather than the ninth, the timing follows the end of Ashtami at sunrise for the city.
Practice varies: in much of the north the fast is concluded on Ashtami with a havan and the feeding of girls, while in Bengal, Odisha and Assam the day is one stage of the larger Durga Puja and the fast, where kept, ends only after the tenth day.