Durga Puja, also known as Durgotsava, is a Hindu festival that celebrates the victory of the goddess Durga over the demon Mahishasura. It is a five-day festival that typically falls in the month of September or October, depending on the lunar calendar.
The festival is celebrated with great fervor and devotion in the eastern states of India, particularly in West Bengal, Odisha, and Assam. It is also celebrated in other parts of the country and around the world, where there are significant populations of Hindus.
During Durga Puja, elaborate and ornate statues of the goddess Durga are installed in pandals (temporary shrines) and worshipped with offerings of flowers, fruits, and incense. The statues are also adorned with beautiful and intricate hand-crafted clothing and jewelry. In addition to the puja (worship) of the goddess, there are also a variety of cultural and social activities that take place during the festival, including music and dance performances, traditional food and drink, and fireworks.
One of the most important aspects of Durga Puja is the immersion of the statues of the goddess in water, which marks the end of the festival. This ceremony, known as visarjan, is a symbolic gesture of letting go of the goddess and returning her to her celestial home. It is accompanied by a procession of devotees who carry the statues through the streets, singing and dancing as they go.
Durga Puja is a time for Hindus to come together and celebrate their faith, as well as a time for families and communities to come together and participate in the festivities. It is a time of joy and celebration, and an opportunity to remember and honor the goddess Durga and her victory over evil.
In conclusion, Durga Puja is a significant and beloved festival in the Hindu tradition, celebrated with devotion, cultural activities, and a sense of community. It is a time for Hindus to come together and honor the goddess Durga, and to celebrate her victory over evil.
Durga Puja
Apart from being a religious festival for the Hindus, it is also an occasion for reunion and rejuvenation, and a celebration of traditional culture and customs. There is usually a queue of processions of other pujas at the ghaat riverbank. Then She in Her image of Mahishasuramardini is immersed into the sacred Ganga, whose currents bear Her back to Her home in Kailash Parvat, which She shares with Her husband. All this goes on in the presence of the shindoor- and shondesh-smeared pratima, the music of dhaak and kashor and women's laughter filling the air. Watching my mother choosing her own personal goddess, defying tradition, was by itself empowering to me.
At Durga Puja, Hindus wrestle with the West's sexualized destroyer
Called Basanti Puja in Sanskrit 'basanta' means 'spring' , it is celebrated to this day on a similar scale but in limited pockets of the delta. For example, Ekdalia Evergreen Club and Rajdanga Naba Uday Sangha, sarbojonin committees from South Calcutta, are famous for their unconventional themed pandals and idols. On Panchami, the pratima are installed in their respective pandals and the puja begins. But like most major festivals, Durga Puja is not just a cultural extravaganza; it is an economic lifeline for West Bengal. At one time, he was sceptical about Durga Pujas that mixed in social messaging. But now, for the spectator, it has become a way to see the world.
Know Where And How Durga Puja is Celebrated The Best in India
Both Navratri and Durga Puja will be celebrated by the South Asian diaspora across the United States, with Navratri beginning on Oct. Students gather at the feet of Devi Sarasvati with their books or at Devi Lakshmi's with their instruments, to touch them to the feet of the respective Devis and collect the anjali flowers from the pratima. Even the non-believers take an active part in these celebrations and you will see people decked up in new traditional outfits. The festival is celebrated by people exchanging greetings and homemade sweets to family and loved ones. One can find handbags, clothes, souvenirs, even boxer shorts or panties, all with an image of Kali emblazoned on them.
10 Lines On Durga Puja in English Essay: Check Out in this Article
Siliguri Durga Puja Another place where the Durga puja is celebrated as good and grand as Kolkata is Siliguri. It is a time for people to come together in celebration and to pay tribute to the goddess Durga. As you walk down the streets of Kolkata, you will get to hear traditional music and also Rabindra Sangeet. In Her place stands a painted dia clay lamp , whose flame is a poor imitation of the glamour of Ma Durga's mukhmandal countenance. A lot of scriptural injunctions are performed by priests for four days. At dawn the next day, the pandals are thrown open to the public for darshan and anjali guided offering. A sprig of the mango plant, which needs to be either five- or seven-tipped, completes the ghat arrangement, which is then placed within a network of red- or white-coloured bamboo sticks and yarn.
So there are new rituals and selfie opportunities like Khunti Puja — the day the first bamboopole is planted to construct the pandal. In 2021, Mahalaya will fall on October 6. Golu ritual is the most interesting feature of the Navratri celebration. Also, we had the pandemic ravaging the world in between. The latter being the shishya student of none other than Lord Brahma, Rama would never have been able to destroy him and rescue His wife Seeta from his demonic clutches without calling upon Her. Women and young girls place dolls on a wooden pavilion that have been passed from one generation to another! You could also opt to visit your neighborhood pandals that often also host many cultural programs.
Durga Puja inscribed on the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity
In this light, navami doesn't have the life and bustle of shaptami and ashtami; it bears the beginnings of a heaviness creeping into the air, a seriousness that is often distracted from by traditional games in the evenings. Post that, a ritual is performed to bring in her holy presence on Saptami. Alas, it is Vijaya dashami, the victorious tenth day. The whole place comes alive and is lit up and decorated beautifully. On dashami the next day, one could sense the pall that descends upon the delta.
Kolkata Durga Puja If you want to witness one of the best ways of celebrations of Durga Puja, Kolkata is where you should. Activities go on through the year and include a mind-boggling combination of festivity, artistry, culture, entertainment, shopping, and food and drink. This is how Durga Puja is celebrated in Kolkata. It is mere moments before the signature visarjan to give up the pratima , before the colours and the music and the fervour of the eve of dashami plunge into unspeakable sorrow. Atanu Biswas is Professor of Statistics, Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata. She wears a string of human heads around her neck and a girdle of human hands. The festival occurs in the Hindu month Ashwin and festival takes place from first day to tenth day of this month.
How our consumption of Durga Puja has changed over the years
Corporations started instituting awards, drawing in crowds hungry for novelty. It is said that the puja that happens in Saktigarh, Hakimpara, Rabindra Sangha and Central Colony among several others are the most popular and also the oldest puja in Siliguri. Durga Puja Celebration Ideas Every state calls for grand Durga Puja celebrations. The red-bordered white saree is of especial significance to the Bengali woman, because it is said that these two colours define the life of a woman. It is the day of much feasting and celebration, and is the point when the preparations begin in full measure. This makes the Puja truly unique. And post Independence, like you all, now know, Durga Puja went on to become one of the biggest renowned festivals of the whole world.
This is considered an untimely invocation because Durga Puja was originally observed in the spring navaratri. Schools and offices declare vacation; businesses flourish; and groups of residents of a single neighbourhood visit Kumartuli en masse in order to take a look at the finished pratima prior to delivery to their pandal. Her multiple manifestations seem to accept and love every side to me. But in contemporary traditions, setting up of magnificent pandals and beautifully sculpted idols also has become an important part of Durga Puja. The children are weeping for Her to not go, only to be shushed by their mothers who strike fear into their innocent hearts of a Shiva angered by His wife's prolonged absence, breaking into tandava.
This shindoor-khyala is the last of the one-of-a-kind festive cheer that defines the season. An Indian artisan stands among clay statues of Durga as they are being readied for the Durga Puja festival inside a workshop in Gauhati, India, on Sept. The art interest is huge, says Dhrubojyoti Bose Suvo, secretary, massArt, which organised the preview. This worship ends on Navami with a Maha Arti which symbolizes the end of significant prayers and rituals. In Western portrayals, and larger feminist discourse, this image of Kali is held up to emphasize empowerment and wild sexuality. During Navratri, this alcove would come alive as my mother incorporated the Hindu practice within her Jain tradition.
