Durga Puja
Author: Debjani
From: Kolkata, India
Age: 12
Date: 26th Mar 2004, 6:30 AM
Rating: Not yet rated
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Title: Durga Puja
I’m a Bengali (a linguistic community in India). Durga Puja is the biggest festival for Bengalis. Puja means worship. Ma (meaning Mother) Durga is the Goddess who symbolizes the strength of women and is also the Goddess of general well being. Every year at around October (depending on the Bengali calendar that starts on 15th April) it is said that Ma Durga along with her four children comes down from heaven to earth for five days to visit her parents in the mountains of Himalayas.
Local clubs get builders to build marquees very elaborately and statues of Ma Durga with her four children are installed in them. During the five days of Durga Puja people go pandal (meaning marquee) hopping. Each pandal has its own theme and design (some pandals are highly interesting. For example last year a pandal was built with coconuts and it’s not like the pandals are small, they are 35 feet high). Every year there are competitions on pandals, such as Most Beautiful Pandal or The Pandal with Most Exciting Theme. The winning clubs get great prizes. But that’s not the reason why pandals are built. Pandals are built to mark the celebration of Goddess Puja. Every evening during these five days Pujaries (who are Hindu priests) perform various pujas in the pandal in front of the statue of Ma Durga.
The five days have separate names. First day is called Shoshti, second day is called Shaptami, third day Aushtomi, fourth day Nabami and last day is known as Dashami. On Dashami the statues of Ma Durga and her four children are left on the river (this is called Bhashan). It is said that the Goddess with her four children goes along with the river currents past the horizon and reach heaven. The most important of the five festive days is Aushtomi. Special worshipping is done on this day which continues into the darkness of the mid-night. Also, on this day only vegetarian food can be eaten.
During the five days of Durga Pujas new clothes are worn on every single day! During the five days houses are decorted with light bulbs hanging on the outside of houses in various designs. Even trees are decorated with lights. A Durga Puja nights are as bright as a cloudless morning.
For five days after Bhashan, people go to houses of their relatives seeking blessings from their elders. With the blessings of Ma Durga and our elders the coming year is bound to be a happy one!
A Storyteller Topic - Celebrations Around the World
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