What is Dussehra?
Dussehra or Vijaydushmi is a festival which is celebrated on 10th day of the shukl paksh of the hindi month ‘Ashwin’.
Why do we celebrate Dussehra?
On this day, Lord Rama killed Ravana. This is why we celebrate Dussehra. Many people in entire Hindu prominent regions burn effigies of Ravana to celebrate the victory.
What is done on Dussehra?
In this post, I suppose to tell you how is Dussehra celebrated in North Indian Households. Though, this is not completely practical to say that these traditions are in every home, as the customs may vary from community to community and caste to caste.
Hence, if your question is, “how is Dussehra celebrated in India?”, that is very complicated for me to answer.
What I’m explaining to you is based on how North Indian Agrawals/ Baniyas/Vaniks/Vaishyas (Synonyms for the corporate community of India) celebrate Dussehra.
Dussehra, in north India, is a simpler yet pious festival.
First of all, the ladies of the house make the famous Dussehra festival drawing. It is a symbolic image of Lord Rama. Traditionally, it is drawn with flour on floor or any flagon. But, since, nowadays, everyone is busy, the same figure can be drawn on a paper with pen.
On the figure, 10 balls made of cow dung are kept. In absence of cow dung, Wheat flour balls can be kept.
As Dussehra succeeds Navratri, during Navratri grass of either wheat or barley is grown. They are then kept on the balls.
On another paper, Ram, Lakshman, Bharat and Shatrughn are drawn symbolically.
Some strands of grass are kept in the books and tied with the weapons as well.
Lakshmi ji and Ganesh Ji are worshipped as well.
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| Dussehra Poojan |
After the puja, a parikrama is done around the pooja sthan. A diary is maintained on which every Dussehra the then prevalent rates of some commodities are mentioned. The signatures of all the present family members are recorded. This practice is really beneficial, and we can trace this tradition to our ancestors ideology of keeping regular economic and genealogical record.
Sweets are distributed as prasad.
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| Sweets are the soul of Indian Festivals. |
Afterwards, Sisters keep the grown wheat/barley grass, which are also called ‘norte‘ on their brothers’ right ears.
Though, not very famous but Dussehra is really a beautiful festival.
Conclusion
Concluding this rather irregular and roughly arranged article :), I guess if you were to write about Dussehra, you’ve got sufficient points for the essay. Dussehra gives me another nostalgia that in the middle school days, we used to get Dussehra essay for homework. XD