Make a pious dip in the holy waters of the Ganga this Ganga Dussehra festival

• Ganga Dussehra will be celebrated on 03 June

• Devotees take holy bath in river Ganga on this day to cleanse sins and misdeeds

Kolkata, June 03, 2017: Ganga Dussehra, also known as Gangavataran means 'descent of the Ganga'. It falls during Dashami Tithi of Jyeshtha Shukla Paksha. [bctt tweet="This year, Ganga Dussehra will be celebrated on 3rd June, Saturday." username="NewsGramdotcom"]

Usually, the devotees celebrate Ganga Dussehra a day before Nirjala Ekadashi. But sometimes Ganga Dussehra and Nirjala Ekadashi falls on the same day.

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Just like any other Hindu festival, the festival also has a history. This day is dedicated to Goddess Ganga and commemorated as the day when Ganga was descended to the Earth to complete her mission to purge the souls of the ancestors of King Bhagiratha who were cursed by Kapil Muni. The Goddess Ganga resided in the Kamandal of Lord Brahma before coming to the earth. It is believed that Goddess Ganga brought with her the purity of heaven.

On this day, the Goddess Ganga is worshipped by devotees and the devotees take bath in the Ganges. It is considered to be highly auspicious and pious to take bath in the Ganges and offer charity or Dan-Punya (दान-पुण्य) to the needy on Ganga Dussehra day. Devotees gather in large numbers with the belief that all types of sins and misdeeds can be cleansed by a holy dip in the Ganges on Ganga Dussehra day.

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Devotees gather at Allahabad/Prayag, Garhmukteshwar, Haridwar, Rishikesh and Varanasi to take a holy bath in the Ganges. Among others, Varanasi is famous for the legendary Ganga Dussehra celebrations. On this day, a huge number of devotees participate in Ganga Aarti after Ganga Snan at Dasaswamedh Ghat.

People often confuse Ganga Dussehra with Ganga Jayanti, which is the day when Goddess Ganga was born.

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The puja timings of the festival are mentioned below:

Dashami Tithi Begins = 06:51 on 3/Jun/2017Dashami Tithi Ends = 08:03 on 4/Jun/2017

– prepared by Durba Mandal of NewsGram. Twitter: @dubumerang