VIJAYADASHMI FESTIVAL

Durga Puja, also known as Dussehara or Vijayadashmi, is an annual Hindu festival which reveres and pays homage to the Hindu goddess Durga and is also celebrated because of Durga's victory over Mahishasur. It is particularly popular and traditionally celebrated in the Indian states of West Bengal, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh (eastern parts), Jharkhand, Odisha, Tripura, Assam and the country of Bangladesh. The festival is observed in the Indian calendar month of Ashwin, which corresponds to September–October in the Gregorian calendar. Durga Puja, is a ten-day festival, of which the last five are of the most significance. The puja is performed in homes and public, the latter featuring a temporary stage and structural decorations (known as pandals). The festival is also marked by recitations, performance arts, revelry, gift-giving, family visits, feasting, and public processions .As per Hindu ures, the festival marks the victory of goddess Durga in her battle against the shape-shifting asura, Mahishasura. Thus, the festival epitomizes the victory of good over evil. Durga puja coincides with Navaratri and Dussehra celebrations observed by other traditions of Hinduism, in which the Ram Leela dance-drama is enacted, celebrating the victory of Bhagwan Ram against Ravana, and effigies of Ravana are burnt.