This is my first Indian festival on the land of London. Everyone from my family, friend circle was wishing me for Dasara. It is celebrated on the tenth day of Navaratri in the significance of victory of Lord Rama over the ten-headed demon king Ravana and also the victory of Goddess Durga over the demons Mahishasur. There fore it is also known as 'Vijayadashami' which literally means vijay (victory) + Dashami (tenth day).
On this day people celebrate this publically and with their families too. They create a huge statue of Ravana with ten heads and enlight it with fire in symbol of 'death of negativity'. We call it 'Ravan Dahan'.
In my region, people worship the Apta tree (Bauhinia racemosa) and exchange its leaves (known as golden leaves) as a symbol of gold wishing each other a bright and prosperous future. The tradition of exchanging Apta leaves is symbolic of Raghuraja, an ancestor of Rama and Kubera. Many artisan communities ritually worship books, study material, tools of all kinds and they are given rest on this specific day. The saffron-coloured Marigold are particularly associated with and sold in significant quantities during this festive period. They are used for both worship and decorating homes and work-places.
I always celebrate this festival with worship of my colors, pens, my computer and my books. Even we exchange Apta leaves in relatives and neighborhood. Being far from my home I was badly missing my family, relatives. But the good thing was it made me recall the way we celebrate this festival and the importance of this festival. I thing the distance made me realize our moral values and the reason behind celebrating the festival. Though I was extremely busy with my faces project I celebrated this festival in my small hostel room on a small scale. My mother always says, ''no matter how wealthy it is, worship from your heart is always accepted by the god''. I drew small symbol of 'Saraswati' (goddess of knowledge) and put some color bottles pens, markers aside. I didn't have all the material which we have been using for worship, marigold flowers was replaced by pink western flowers. With out haldi- kumkum, lamp (because of fire alarm) I closed my eyes and hands together and pray for god from my bottom of the heart. It was a real magic, that whole day I was in a different spiritual trace and it gave me some hidden energy that each and every single cell of my body was feeling.
This feeling of festival gave me inputs for my final project's subject. I am thinking to take up the project related Hindu mythological stories. Our all festivals have some scientific and geographic reasons as well as the are based on mythological stories. Today's Dasara celebration really gave me feeling that I should finalize my final project's subject related to Hindu mythological stories.
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