The Durgapuja - a national festival of the Hindus takes place in the month of Aswin or Kartik i.e. months of September and October according to the English calendar year when melow sun treads softly in Bengal landscape. The spirit of excited festivity is omnipresent throughout Durga Puja in Bengal and elsewhere when the image of the ten headed, a beautiful but fierce goddess on her lion charger is worshipped with great gusto.
In eastern India, especially in Bengal, the Durga Puja is the principal festival during Navaratri. It is celebrated with gaiety and devotion through public ceremonies of “Sarbojanin Puja” or community worship. Huge decorative temporary structures called “pandals” are constructed to house these grand prayer services, followed by mass feeding, and cultural functions. The earthen icons of Goddess Durga, accompanied by those of Lakshmi, Saraswati, Ganesha
and Kartikya, are taken out on the tenth day in a triumphal procession to the nearby river, where they are ceremonially immersed. Bengali ladies give an emotion-charged send-off to Durga amidst ululations and drumbeats. This marks the end of the goddess’ brief visit to the earth. As Durga leaves for Mount Kailash, the abode of her husband Shiva, it’s time for “Bijoya” or Vijayadashami, when people visit each other’s homes, hug each other and exchange sweets.
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