Free Online Greetings for Dusshera Dussehra (tenth day) is one of the significant Hindu festivals, celebrated with much enthusiasm and fervor in the entire country.
In West Bengal it is celebrated in the form of Durga Puja. The vibrant festivities last for ten days, of which nine nights, 'Navaratri', are spent in worship. The tenth day is devoted to the worship of goddess Durga. Beautiful idols of the Mother Goddess are worshiped in elaborate pandals for nine days, and on the tenth day, these are carried out in procession for immersion (visarjan) in a river or pond.
In Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, families arrange dolls (Bommalla Kolu) on artificially constructed steps. Scenes culled from various stories in the epics and puranas are displayed. They sing songs, tell stories that the dolls might depict and eat a dish made out of chickpeas (choondal). The whole set up is taken down on Vijayadashmi.
In Punjab, Navaratri is taken as a period of fasting. In Gujarat, the evenings and nights are occasions for the fascinating Garba dance. The women dance around an earthen lamp while singing devotional songs accompanied by rhythmic clapping of hands.
In Northern India, the festival wears the colorful garb of Ramlila where the various incidents from Rama's life are enacted, such as the destruction of Ravana and Bharat Milap, that is the reunion of Ram and his estranged brother Bharat, on the former's return to Ayodhya after 14 years of exile.
The Dussehra of Mysore, is also quite famous where caparisoned elephants lead a colorful procession through the gaily dressed streets of the city. |