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Durga Puja: Festivals
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Durga Puja is a nine-day festival, celebrated in the state of West Bengal, from the first to the tenth day in the month of Ashvina. This period is celebrated as Navaratri in most parts of India. Durga Puja is the most important and the most eagerly awaited festival of the state. It commemorates the victory of Durga over the demon Mahishasura. The form under which she is adored is that of an image with ten arms and a weapon in each hand, her right leg resting on a lion and her left on the buffalo demon.
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In eastern India, especially in Bengal, the Durga Puja is the principal festival during Navratri. 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.
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Durga Puja is basically a festival with a series of rituals & Puja. The making of Durga idols is ... governed by rituals. The elemental ritual, which is most commonly followed, is that the ingredients that are used to make the idol of goddess Durga come from the holy river Ganga. The idol of Durga is generally flanked by the idols of Lakshmi, Saraswati, Kartik and Ganesh. The image of Durga is framed at the centre, and the background behind the whole group is called the chaal-chitra. The goddess sits atop a lion, which is her vahan.
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Durga Puja is the most important festival of Bengalis. The countdown has started for the fourdays of the grand finale of durgapuja. The whole bengali Community is brimmed with the unique philharmonic of conch shells, the rhythms of Dhaks, and of course, the chanting of hymns, prayers and pushpanjali. The spirit of festivity breaks loose all over Chittaranjan Park.
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Durga Puja is the greatest Hindu festival in which God is adored as Mother. It is celebrated in the autumn months of September/October. According to the Hindu solar calendar, it falls on the first nine days of the month of Ashvin, in honor of the nine manifestations of Durga. It is the time of the Durga Puja, celebrating the ten-armed goddess of fertility and the third embodiment of the Devi, Durga. It was Durga who vanquished the buffalo-demon Mahishasura.
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What makes Durga Puja intoxicating is the tension between calm spirituality and ecstatic sensuality, the twin poles of Hindu religious worship. The festival of Durga Puja is celebrated all over India with different festivities and rituals. Durga Puja is celebrated in the autumn, in the month of September/October. It is the time when the weather remains at its best giving the atmosphere a festive mood. The advent of autumn is impossible to overlook in any corner of the land. It arouses one from bed at dawn, with the sound of high-pitched, ululations, the frantic blowing of conch shells and bell metal cymbals.
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