Dussehra Festival Special Thali showcases Vegetarian dishes prepared during the festival. A balanced thali with the typical South Indian dishes that are easy to cook on the hectic days.
Navratri is a festival dedicated to the worship of the Hindu deity Shakti. The word Navaratri literally means nine nights in Sanskrit, Nava meaning nine and Ratri meaning nights. During these nine nights and ten days, nine forms of Shakti/Devi are worshipped. The 10th day is commonly referred to as Vijayadashami or “Dussehra.”
I have been observing Navratri pooja since 2009 and have been making special Neveidyam for daily pooja based on the colour to be followed for each day. You can read more about the details in my Navratri Special dishes that I have compiled.
Importance of Dussehra:
Navratri is an important Hindu festival, with all ten days celebrated with great zeal. The last two days, Ayudha Pooja and the Vijayadhasami very special.
Cleaning of the house starts a week before and by the time Navratri comes, your house is stick and span. "Astra Puja" or “Worship of Instruments is the other name. So on the Ayudha Pooja, we do pooja for the instruments, machines, weapons, books, and musical instruments.
Amma cleans all the appliances, applies Kumkuma as well. It is hilarious when Daddy sees this and keeps wiping it off. Now she has sort of curbed this habit of hers.
On Ayudha Pooja, we observe Saraswati Pooja as well, where we keep all our books and do pooja. Kids take advantage of this and don't study during the day. However, we have to study after evening pooja, when they have to take the books for studying.
Dishes prepared for the festival!
Sharing some of the Ayuda Pooja celebrations we had done in the past.
Athamma always makes elaborate lunch for Vijayadasami or Dussehra. At my parent's place, Amma makes special dishes celebrating my brother's birthday because my brother was born on a Vijaya Dashami, so he gets to celebrate two birthdays!
Ever since I started observing Navratri in our home, I make Dussehra, the tenth-day special as well following Hubby's dear tradition. The special meal always has Lemon Rice, with either Red Chili Dal or Green Chili Dal, two vegetables - one is a dry saute, one roasted, along with some version of vada, sweet poli, rasam, curd rice followed by either payasam/Kesari.
When we offer food to God with all dishes prepared, we offer it in a banana leaf. You can see how it looks when Amma does it for Ugadi. She calls this offering as Thaliga, the taste that comes of mixing all the dishes is something very unique and if you are not used to it, you will not like it.
Hubby's family doesn't follow the tradition of offering the entire meal to God, so I haven't done it myself. The thali that I am sharing today was prepared for the Dussehra 2019 and the new dish we prepared was the Chow Chow pesarapappu kura.
Dussehra Festival Menu
Lemon Rice
Arbi Roast
Chow Chow Pasi Parupp Poriya
Red Chili Dal
Cumin Pepper Rasam
Steamed Rice
Kesari Bath
Vada
Curd Rice with Pomegranate
Pomegranate
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Suma Gandlur says
My mother also offers the entire meal prepared as neivedyam on festival days though I am quite lazy to prepare elaborate festive meals. Your Navaratri thaali really looks festive and I have never heard about these chili dals before. I just went and checked your link now.
vaishalisabnani says
We do not do any poojas since we follow a Guru , where idol pooja is not done . When I see you all posting these festival Thalis , I really find them divine and beautiful .
Your thali looks awesome , I have made the arvi and chilly dal with your recipes , they both are fantastic. I am sure the rest would be amazing too .
Harini Rupanagudi says
Wow! What a wonderful feast you have prepared. Love the red chili dal. (If I understand correctly is it the pandu mirapakaya pappu?)
namscorner18 says
Amazing full meals with all items. Perfect for any festival or when we have some guests. Red chilli dal looks interesting to me too. Will check the recipe.
Rajani says
I used to love the day of pooja when we don’t have to read at all, it was fun in the way me and my brothers used to go out of our way not to read a single word that day. We won’t even read a headlines in TV or the newspaper ! Anyways, the whole thali looks so colorful, this one is a rangoli thali too in some ways 🙂
srividhya says
Amazing festival menu. The dal sounds interesting with red chili. Hopping on to that one now 🙂 Very filling yet comforting festive thali.
Renu Agrawal Dongre says
Yummy, and comforting festive thali this is. After the puja to have such meals is just a bliss and specially when it is cooked like this. Wonderful spread.