page_title: Festivals in Kolkata
section_title: Durga Puja
hierarchical_section_title: Festivals in Kolkata / Religious festivals / Durga Puja
caption_attribution_description: English: Durga Puja pandal at College Square, Calcutta, which has a large lake in front. The pandal is a full scale replica of the Coochbehar Palace in N. Bengal.
context_page_description: Kolkata holds many festivals throughout the year. Durga Puja is the largest festival of West Bengal, and it features colourful pandals, decorative idols of Hindu goddess Durga and her family, lighting decorations and fireworks. Other major festivals are Diwali, Kali Puja, Holi, Saraswati Puja, Poush Parbon, Poila Boishakh, etc. Kolkata Book Fair, Kolkata International Film Festival and Dover Lane Music Festival are major annual cultural events of the city.
context_section_description: Durga Puja, held in September–October, is the biggest and most important festival of West Bengal as well as of Kolkata. It marks the victory of ten-armed goddess Durga over the buffalo demon Mahishasur and signifies the victory of good over evil. The festival commences on Mahalaya, a week before the actual Puja celebrations begin on Sashthi and continue through Saptami, Ashtami, Navami and Vijaya Dashami, when the festival comes to an end. Pandals are set up and idols of goddess Durga and her four children - Lakshmi, Saraswati, Kartik, Ganesh are worshipped and displayed for five days across the state, especially in Kolkata. Some 3000 pandals are erected throughout Kolkata and its suburbs. Pujas are also conducted in sizeable number of family households. Elaborate rituals are performed by priests amid sound of drums (dhaak), conch shell (shaankh) and bells, and many devotees join in the prayers. Although the root of Durga Puja is essentially religious, the festival has slowly changed into more of a social carnival than a religious festival, where people from other religious or ethnic backgrounds freely participate in the festivity. It has become Kolkata's biggest public spectacle, glamorous art event and consumerist carnival. The city is decked up with lighting decorations. Loudspeakers play popular songs as well as recitation of mantras by priests. Shops, restaurants and eateries stay open all night. Fairs are set up in numerous parks and public spaces. The roads become overcrowded with hundreds of thousands of devotees, revellers and pandal-hoppers visiting the pandals on Puja days. The number of crowd is estimated to be a few million on the festive days and nights, possibly the second largest annual human congregation after the Hajj. It creates a chaotic traffic condition and vehicular movement comes to a standstill in many places. Elaborate security arrangements are made by Kolkata Police and additional personnel are deployed to prevent any untoward incident as well as to maintain crowd movement. Trains, buses, taxis and other modes of transport operate for whole night as crowds pour into the city from nearby districts and towns. The festival is celebrated with shopping and gift-giving - usually new clothes, family and other social gatherings, communal feasting and different cultural performances. Modern day Puja celebrations also include reading special Pujabarshiki magazines, going out for a tour, watching movies and special programmes on TV, preparing special food items or dining out etc. during the Puja holidays.
  On Bijaya Dashami, the day of the festival, people bid adieu to goddess Durga offering her sweets and sindoor. Before bidding adieu to the goddess, the married women assemble near the idol, apply vermilion on her feet or forehead and then smear vermillion on each other. This is a part of the last celebration before the idols are taken out in grand processions of song, dance, music and then immersed in the waters. The idol immersion ceremony continues for the next few days. People distribute sweets and visit their friends, family members and relatives to exchange the Bijoya greetings.
caption: a Durga puja pandal
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