Dusshera will be celebrated on Oct 5 this year...
To celebrate the victory over the darkness, we, Indians are well into the festive season of the year and Hindus across the country celebrate one of the major festivals - Navratri. Navratri coincides with the Bengali festival of Durga Puja, which is marked during the last four days of Navratri (from the sixth to the ninth day).
This year, Navratri started on September 26, 2022, and will end today (on October 4, 2022). The next day is marked as Dussehra (or Vijaya Dashami by the Bengali community) which further leads to Diwali after 21 days.
In Hindus, Dussehra (or Vijaya Dashami) is marked with much enthusiasm all over the country. It signifies the victory of good over evil. In North India, people burn effigies of Ravana (Ravan Dahan) to celebrate the victory of Lord Rama - it is believed that setting fire to the effigies of mythological demons also extinguishes the devils within us.
On the other hand, Bengalis mark Vijaya Dashami by immersing in the idol of Goddess Durga - which signifies sending off the daughter back to her home, after a vacation.
According to Drikpanchang, the puja muhurat falls on October 5 from 02:07 pm to 02:54 pm while the Durga Visarjan muhurat is from 6:16 am to 8:37 am.
In North India, Dussehra is celebrated with much fanfare and Ram Lila, an enactment of Rama's story, is organized on all nine days of Navratri culminating with the killing of Ravana and burning of his life-size effigy on the day of Dussehra or Vijayadashami along with those of Meghnad and Kumbhakaran. Dussehra also signifies getting rid of sins or bad qualities as each head of the Ravana symbolizes one bad quality.
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