Celebrating the Festival of Ganga Dussehra
Ganga Dussehra is a spiritual bathing festival that commemorates the descent of the Ganges.
Know About Ganga Dussehra
Ganga Dussehra is another name for Gangavataran which like the Kumbh Mela is a spiritual bathing festival that commemorates the descent of the Ganges. According to religious Hindu calendar it is said that the glorious Ganga had descended from the sky directly to the earth on this day. Ganga Dussehra is celebrated on Dashami which falls on the 10th day of the waxing moon (Shukla Paksha) of the Hindu month of Jyeshtha. The festival celebration is for ten days, excluding nine days prior to this holy day.
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Celebration –
The Ganga Dussehra is celebrated mainly in the areas of Northern and Eastern India, especially in the Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Bihar, and West Bengal because the river Ganga is here. This festival occurs in Haridwar, Varanasi, Garhmukteshwar, Rishikesh, Allahabad, and Patna where followers assemble at the river banks of Ganges and perform aartis (circular movement of light lamp in front of the deity as a form of prayer) to the river. It is held that, by taking a dip in the river on this day, the devotee is taken to a state ofpurification and is also cured of any illness that may had befallen him.
Dasha in Sanskrit symbolizes ten whereas Hara means destroy, hence, taking a bath in river during these ten days is believed as the person is freed from ten sins or for that matter ten births of sins.
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On the same day, the river Yamuna is also decorated and worshiped and, in the same way, different Kite-flying competitions take place. People believe that the Yamuna possesses divine powers and bathe in its waters at Mathura, Vrindavan and Bateshwar etc and offer watermelon or cucumber etc. The establishments serve products like lassi, sharbat and shikanji which are some of the popular fermented and acidulated drinks.
About 15 lakh people were estimated to have participated in the festival in Haridwar in 2017.
Some traditions that take place at the Ghats include Deep daan which involves floating oil lamps in the river part or the Maha aarti. In these places priests of Patna perform grand aarti in evening at Gandhi Ghat and touches the river with an 1100m Garland at Adalat Ghat.
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