Vijaya Dashami

Vijaya Dashami 

The Vijayadashami or Dussehra festival is of a tremendous cultural significance in India and it is celebrated with gaiety and love. In Nepal, Dussehra or Dasara is celebrated as Dashain. After Navaratri, the tenth and final day is Vijayadashami, the day of victory. Vijayadashami or Dussehra festival is celebrated as the victory of Lord Rama over Demon Ravana and also the triumph of Goddess Durga over the buffalo Demon Mahishasura. There are also other events that mark the celebrations on this day, such as the end of the exile period of Pandavas then coming back to their kingdom. Other famous Dussehra celebrations in India take place in Kolkata and Orissa, where the festival is preceded by week-long celebrations. People visit the Pooja Pandals wearing new clothes, prepare traditional food at home and celebrate the festival with their friends and families. In most other parts of India, plays are organized across cities depicting the story of Ramayana which culminates in the killing of Ravana on this day. Statues of Ravana are burnt everywhere in India on Dussehra and in Delhi, the event is attended by political dignitaries in the Ramlila Maidan, which is a large ground traditionally used for staging the annual Ramlila. In short, it is a celebration of the victory of good over evil, and when people burn in a huge bonfire the effigy of Ravana, the ten-headed demon, it also represents the destruction of the false ego and the process by which we can purify ourselves of the ten sins, meaning the sins committed by the ten active senses (the senses of perception and organs of action).