| Durga Puja |
Kolkata Tour || Darjeeling Tour || Durga Puja || West Bengal Cuisine || Sagar Island ||
Sunderbans Wildlife || West Bengal Map
Sunderbans Wildlife || West Bengal Map
Beautiful idols of the Goddess Durga in practically all sizes, sindoor-smeared foreheads of women clad in bright sarees, Dhak, dhunuchi naach, mild but sweet fragrance of the burning agarbatti (Incense) sticks, laughing children…that’s the wonderful festival of Durga Puja for you!The festival of Durga Puja--also called Durgostab, Akal Bodhan, and Maha Puja--is celebrated in the honor of the Goddess Durga (she who is incomprehensible or difficult to reach) with much religious fervor in West Bengal and other parts of India and abroad.
The festival revokes the power of female Shakti as personified by Ma Durga. Legend has it that the demon Mahisasura, blessed by Lord Brahma, became too powerful and he started terrorizing everyone, including the gods. The much terrified gods asked the Goddess Durga to protect them from the demon’s fury. Durga killed Mahisasura.
Since then Durga Puja is celebrated. This autumnal festival, celebrated in the month of September/October every year, provides an occasion for the people of West Bengal to come together on a common socio-cultural-religious platform to worship the goddess. Mahasaptami, Mahaastami and Mahanavami—the seventh, eight and the ninth days of the 10-day festival--are the most important days of this famous religious carnival of the state.
To celebrate Durga Puja, huge and beautiful pandals are erected all over West Bengal, and striking statues of the goddess, along with all the members of her family--Kartik (the protector), Ganesh (initiator of the puja), Saraswati (the goddess of knowledge), and Lakshmi (the provider)--are displayed and worshipped.
