RamayanaFestivals of the Ramayana
How Dussehra and Diwali, Ram Navami and the Ramlila are linked with the story of the Ramayana, and how regions differ in what they celebrate.
Several festivals draw on the Ramayana, though regions differ in how.
- Ram Navami (in March or April) celebrates the birth of Rama.
- Dussehra (Vijayadashami), in September or October, celebrates the victory of Rama over Ravana in north India, often with the burning of effigies of Ravana, Kumbhakarna and Meghanada at the end of the Ramlila, a series of plays that tell the story over nine or ten nights. In Bengal and other parts, the same day marks the goddess Durga's victory.
- Diwali, twenty days later, remembers in many places the return of Rama to Ayodhya, which was welcomed with rows of lamps. In other regions the festival is for Lakshmi, Krishna or Mahavira.
- Vivah Panchami (in November or December) celebrates the marriage of Rama and Sita.
A retelling in our own words of a story that is told in many different ways across India and Asia. Tellers differ on many episodes; where it matters we say so. It is not a scholarly translation.