Dussehra Puja

Since the celebrations of Dusshera are related to the Hindu mythology, hence the puja performed on Dussehra is performed strictly according to the Hindu traditions and culture. While both men and women can perform the puja, people usually call upon a priest to perform the ritual. After providing him with all the materials required, which may include cow dung, limestone, rice, flowers, kheer and other puja items like dhoop, incense sticks, deep etc., the priest starts performing the Dussehra puja. First, he draws the image of any deity, preferably Lord Ganesh, using the cow dung. Two saucers are made out of the wet cow dung, each used for placing the pooja items such as coins, roli, fruit, jhuwara and roli.The priest chants mantras and performs the pooja by offering flowers and prasad to the deity. Banana, jaggery, rice and radish are generally used to offer as the prasad. When the pooja is over, the priest is offered money (dakshina), while the prasad it offered to the poor. There is a tradition of offering food to the Brahmins of the locality. After attending the Dussehra puja, people start their celebrations of the day. While in north India, they would head towards the nearest Ramlila maidan. In other parts of India, typically in South India, people would indulge in the post Saraswati puja celebrations. In West Bengal, it is the time to take part in Visarjan, the ritual of immersing the idol of Goddess Durga in the nearest water body, such as river or lake.