Bengal Vijayadashami

The festival of Vijay Dashami is celebrated with great pomp and joy throughout the country. This festival is celebrated in different ways in different parts of the country. The festival of Dussehra is celebrated with full pomp in Bengal. Durga Puja held here has its own significance. After worshiping Goddess Durga for nine days of Shardiya Navratri, there is a tradition of playing Holi with vermilion in the Bengali society of West Bengal on Dashami day. This tradition played in Bengal is called ‘Sindoor(vermilion) Khela’. In West Bengal this festival of Maa Durga is celebrated as Vijayadashami. Married women celebrate this festival with great joy and enthusiasm by playing Holi with vermillion on the day of Dashami. In Bengali society it is believed that Maa Durga comes to her maternal home for nine days. People worship and serve Goddess Durga for nine days and pandals are decorated at various places for her worship. On the tenth day, we bid farewell to Maa Durga and to celebrate her farewell, married women apply vermillion to the Mata and then according to their tradition, women apply vermillion to each other. This festival is celebrated to celebrate the victory of righteousness over unrighteousness and truth over untruth. The farewell of Maa Durga is called Visarjan. First of all, women touch the Goddess with betel leaf and then apply vermilion. After this, they play Holi with each other with vermilion and feed sweets. She also prays to the Goddess to come next year.

Although this ‘Sindoor Khela’ is played only by married women, but in this festival girls can also play Holi with vermillion. According to the belief of Bengal, it is said that if unmarried girls participate in the Sindoor Khela festival, they get a handsome and eligible groom. Whereas married women wish for the long life of their husbands.

Method of celebrating Dussehra

Just as a girl is served when she returns to her parents' house, similarly during Navratri, people serve Goddess Durga a lot to please her. Maa Durga is worshiped ritually for nine days; to celebrate this festival, big pandals are set up at various places in West Bengal. Pandals are decorated a lot. People come from far and wide to have darshan of Mata. They worship Maa Durga, offer food and then at the time of parting, married women first touch Maa Durga from head to toe with a betel leaf and apply vermillion. After that they apply vermillion to each other and feed sweets. This tradition of Bengal is called Sindoor Khela.