Festival · 2085
The portal of Festivals
Turn a card. Answer all three rightly and this portal is sealed in your sky. New riddles every morning.
May you win the one battle that matters most this year, the one inside, and may the victory make you humbler.
यत्र योगेश्वरः कृष्णो यत्र पार्थो धनुर्धरः तत्र श्रीर्विजयो भूतिर्ध्रुवा नीतिर्मतिर्मम
yatra yogeśvaraḥ kṛṣṇo yatra pārtho dhanur-dharaḥ / tatra śrīr vijayo bhūtir dhruvā nītir matir mama
Its meaning
Wherever there is Krishna, the lord of yoga, and wherever there is Partha, the archer, there are fortune, victory, prosperity and sound policy; this is my conviction.
Bhagavad Gita 18.78
When, for Chennai
28 September 2085
Shukla Navami · until 9:23 AM
Kept on the day its tithi runs in the afternoon (aparahna).
Do
Sit quietly and name one thing in yourself that is clever and still wrong; write it down, and let the paper go to the fire.
Leave aside
Burning effigies while keeping the anger they stand for.
Add your name and send the link. It opens as your wish, with the timing for their own city, the verse, and how to keep the day.
Wishing you a blessed Vijayadashami · Dussehra
Every festival on its right day for Chennai, inside your phone's own calendar, each one opening its page here. It renews itself every year. No account needed.
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A gentle reminder three days before each festival and on its morning, with its timing for your city.
The waxing Moon stands past its half and the rains are over; in old India this was the season when roads dried and journeys and campaigns began.
Victory on the tenth. Ravana was learned, powerful and devout — the tradition burns him anyway, because none of that survives what he did.
4 stories the day keeps. Turn each card.
Ravana was learned, a great king and a devotee of Shiva, and he would not give Sita back. Rama fought him and won. The tradition keeps the victory on this tenth day.
Valmiki Ramayana, Yuddha Kanda; the day as the tradition keeps it.
The nine nights of battle end, Mahishasura is defeated, and the tenth day is the Devi's own victory. In Bengal she is sent home to Kailasa with tears and with the promise of next year.
Devi Mahatmya, in the Markandeya Purana; the tenth day as the tradition keeps it.
Before their year in disguise at Virata's court, the Pandavas hid their weapons in a shami tree. When the year ended, Arjuna took them down again. The shami is honoured today, and its leaves are shared.
Mahabharata, Virata Parva; the day as the tradition keeps it.
The student Kautsa came to King Raghu for his teacher's fee just after Raghu had given everything away. Raghu would not send him off empty, and Kubera filled the treasury overnight. Kautsa took only what he needed. In Maharashtra the leaves of the apta tree are shared as gold today in its memory.
Kalidasa, Raghuvamsha, canto 5; the leaves as the tradition keeps it.
5 days kept as one season. Each has its own page.
Fifteen days of water and names for those before us.
4 September 2085Mahalaya Amavasya
The last day of the fortnight: every ancestor remembered, even those whose day is forgotten.
Nine nights, nine forms of the Mother; one practice kept unbroken.
20 September 2085Victory on the tenth; a new learning begun.
You are hereThe full Moon of autumn; kheer under its light, and the night kept awake.
3 October 2085Often said
Ravana was simply a demon, nothing like us.
The root
Valmiki gives him learning, power and devotion. That is why he is burned every year: intelligence without restraint is in every age, and the effigy is a mirror more than an enemy.
Often said
This day is for warriors and kings only.
The root
It is also the day of beginnings: children write their first letters, tools and books are honoured, and neighbours share leaves as gold. Anything worth starting may be started today.
Free acts, done by you. Kept so far this year: 0 of 3.
Sit quietly and name one thing in yourself that is clever and still wrong; write it down, and let the paper go to the fire.
Begin a new learning today: one verse, with its meaning, learned by heart before night.
Visit an elder, touch their feet or take their hand, and stay long enough to hear how they are.
Each act is free and done by you. Keeping one writes it to your karma ledger with the day's panchang. Nothing here is ever bought, and no act is a remedy.
The youngest
Writes their first letters of the year, or a new word, in rice or on a slate, with an elder guiding the hand.
The eldest
Tells how Rama's victory or the Devi's farewell was kept in their village or town.
Everyone
Shares shami or apta leaves with neighbours and greets each one, the young touching the elders' feet.
North India
Ram Lila is staged night after night, and on the tenth day the effigies of Ravana, Kumbhakarna and Meghanada are burned at dusk.
Kullu, Himachal Pradesh
Dussehra begins on this day and runs for a week: Raghunath ji is drawn in his chariot, and the deities of the valley's villages come to meet him.
Mysuru, Karnataka
The Jamboo Savari: Chamundeshwari is carried through the city on an elephant at the close of Dasara.
Bengal
Bijoya Dashami: the Devi is immersed, married women play with sindoor, and everyone embraces and visits elders with sweets.
Kerala
Vidyarambham: small children are guided to write their first letters in rice, and books set aside for Saraswati are taken up again.
Kept on the day its tithi runs in the afternoon (aparahna).
The day is chosen by the moment the tradition reads its tithi at, and the times are that day's own, computed for this city. A festival-specific puja window is not printed: those rules differ by tradition and await a scholar's review.
The stories, their sources and the regional customs on this page await a scholar's review. The sky and the dates are computed for your city.