Exact dates and timings depend on your location and calendar tradition: check a local pañcāṅga.
The Rāmāyaṇa (Bālakāṇḍa) and the Purāṇas tell how King Bhagīratha performed long austerities to bring the heavenly Gaṅgā down to earth so that her waters could free the souls of his ancestors. Her fall would have shattered the world, so Śiva caught her in his matted locks and released her gently. She followed Bhagīratha to the sea, and so is called Bhāgīrathī.
Daśaharā means "that which removes ten": bathing in the Gaṅgā on this day is said to remove ten kinds of sin, of body, speech and mind.
Sources: Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Bālakāṇḍa 38–44; Skanda and Brahma Purāṇas
Customs differ between families and regions; follow your own tradition where it differs.
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Crowds bathe at Har kī Pauṛī and float lamps on the river.
Bathing at the ghāṭs and the great evening āratī.
Tradition lists three of the body, four of speech and three of the mind, such as harming others, lying and ill will.
Yes. Add a little Gaṅgā water to your bath and remember her with her stotra.
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Gaṅgā Dasharā is a festival (in Devanagari: गङ्गादशहरा (Gaṅgā Dasharā)). Source: Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Bālakāṇḍa 38–44; Skanda and Brahma Purāṇas.
The day Gaṅgā descended to earth, on the tenth of the bright half of Jyeṣṭha, when a bath in her waters is said to remove ten kinds of sin.
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