Dusshera festival

Dusshera - also known as Vijayadashami - is a 10 day ceremony of fast, rituals or celebrations to honor the victory of good over evil such as the victory of Lord Rama over Ravana. In Western calendar it falls in September or October and for this reason I had the pleasure to witness the celebrations.

Throughout the country, the festivities and rituals of Dusshera differ to a great extent. In Karnataka, where I am staying, the ninth day of Dusshera is the most important one: it is celebrated by worshipping of implements used in daily life. This includes tools and objects one uses in daily life such as cars, buses, trucks, computers, books, copier or even a paper binder. These items are decorated with flowers and worshipped. Furthermore households and objects must be cleaned for this day; for this reason we cleaned our lab on Friday morning! The doors of houses, offices or even of the Bühler shop floor were decorated with big banana-tree leaves which symbolize purity.

Unfortunately it is not allowed to take pictures in the Bühler factory premises. I can only offer you some impressions of the village Virajpet:

Judged by these pictures, Dusshera must be equal important for Indian flower sellers as the mother's day for Swiss florists. Flowers are mostly sold as garlands which are used to decorate pretty much every object.

I really wonder how the driver of this bus managed to get a view on the road through all the garlands and banana-leaves. The white signs on the carriage, windows and wheels are religious symbols painted by a priest.