Vijaya Dashami: Sindoor Khela, and Asche Bochor Abar Hobe

Vijaya Dashami, 20 October. The goddess goes home.

Darpan visarjan in the morning, sindoor khela through the day, mishti and embraces and asche bochor abar hobe — next year, again — and then the immersion at the river in the evening.

Wear cotton. Wear red and white. Do not wear anything you love.

This is the one day of the six where the clothes will be covered in sindoor by noon, and that is the point rather than an accident. Every year somebody wears a good silk to sindoor khela and spends the afternoon trying not to participate.

• A cotton or Tant saree, white or cream with a red border. Cotton and linen sarees.
• Or Bandhani, which carries the palette in a fabric that takes a mark well. Bandhani.
• Draped atpoure, if you can. This is the day for it. How.
• Not: silk, tissue, organza, anything pale you are attached to, anything new.

The alternatives to the standard red-and-white are in this guide — an inverted red body with a cream border reads beautifully today and almost nobody does it.

For men

White or cream kurta. It will not stay white. That is fine.

Afterwards

Sindoor comes out of cotton with a cold soak and patience. It does not come out of silk. Wash the cotton the same day — sindoor sets — and put the week's silks away properly rather than leaving them in a pile until November. Airing in shade, refolding on new lines, cotton not plastic.

And then the wedding season

Which starts almost immediately, and which most of this week's sarees are equally right for. The wedding collection, Riwayat bridal, sangeet and haldi and mehendi.

Six days, planned out in the guide that started this.

Asche bochor abar hobe.