The cultural and religious festival, Bijaya Dashami, is being celebrated across the country on Thursday, on the 10th day of the waxing moon in the Nepali month Ashwin as per the lunar calendar. 

During the Bijaya Dashami Festival, the biggest festival of the Nepali, there is the tradition of receiving 'tika' and 'jamara' from elders as the auspicious item bestowed by the goddesses Nawa Durga, Mahakali, Mahalaxmi and Mahasaraswati. 

'Tika' is the mixture of red vermillion powder and curd that is put on the forehead as a sign of victory and good luck. Similarly, 'jamara' are the maize or barley shoots that are germinated especially for the Dashain festival and put behind the ears or between the hair, in strands, on the head on the last day of the Bijaya Dashami festival as blessings of the goddesses. 

The barley or maize is sown on a special anointed altar on the day of Ghatasthapana, the first day of the 10-day Dhasin festival. The Durgasaptasati scriptures, hymns devoted to the Goddess Durga are recited until the ninth day from the day of Ghatasthapana. 

There is the tradition of receiving the 'tika' and 'jamara' and blessings from the elders on the day of the Bijaya Dashami. 

According to Prof Dr Ram Chandra Gautam, the chairman of Nepal Calendar Determination Committee, the Mahanawami and Dashami fall on the same day (today) this year. The committee has stated that the statues of the goddesses and the special anointed altar where the jamara were germinated could be immersed in rivers or ponds at the auspicious time of 10:45 am and the tika and jamara received at 10:55 am today. 

Bijaya Dashami is also celebrated as the victory of truth and good over evil and falsehood. There is the practice of putting on new clothes and enjoying sumptuous meal and delicacies as per one's purchasing power and cleaning and painting the house, courtyards and community on the occasion of the Dashain. 

It is believed that the festival of Dashain inspires mankind to forsake lust, greed, avarice, anger, arrogance, indolence, violence and theft. RSS