Durga Puja | World Culture & Festivals | Enliven

She is kind, compassionate, soft and delicate. But when the time comes and the situation demands, she can be fierce, aggressive, and frightening and SHE CAN BE 'DURGA'. She fights for order and maintains balance. Yes, I am talking about your mother, your sister, your wife and every other woman you know.


● Durga Puja is celebrated in the Indian calendar month of Aswin, which corresponds to September- October in the Gregorian calendar.


● Mahisasur, the evil demon, who had a buffalo head, with his extreme worship got the boon of immortality from Lord BRAHMA. But the twist was he asked that ' no man or animal should kill him '. Lord BRAHMA offer him this boon but said that a woman will kill him one day. He was so arrogant about his power, that he thought that no woman can kill him ever. In his arrogance, he attacked the Trilok. Frightened by his boon, every god and goddess moved to lord SHIVA, the God of destruction. There lord SHIVA, BRAHMA AND VISHNU convinced lord PARVATI to incarnate as Goddsess DURGA and kill the demon Mahisasur.

Maa DURGA fought the demon for 15 days and last he was killed when he shaped himself into as buffalo.


And from there we celebrate DURGA PUJA, and this story I narrated every year in India and around the world. December 2021 was a very proud moment for all the Indians as Durga Puja became a part of the Intangible cultural heritage list of UNESCO.


Durga Puja signifies that women believe in peace but she knows that sometimes it takes was to make peace. She is a true warrior by definition.


Durga Puja is also known as DURGOTSAV is the legacy of East India, especially BENGAL, JHARKHAND and ODISHA. It is quite popular in Bangladesh also. It is a ten-day festival, where the last day marks the victory of good over evil as on this day Maa Durga slew Mahisasur. It is very exciting that Durga Puja is celebrated in parallel to Navratri and Dussehra or Ram Lila.


● Both Durga Puja and Dussehra manifest that however the odds are the virtuous always win.

If you ever visited Bengal during Durga Puja, you might be knowing that during this time every other crossroad has big and beautiful stages covered with temporarily formed wooden structures ( called pandals ). Every night the delicious Khichdi ( Indian dish ) is distributed among the worshippers. And the kind of sound the Bengalis make is unique in the world. Different places in the East celebrate it with the same enthusiasm. Community lunch is organized at many places with fish and rice given as offerings. On the 8th day also called Ashtami, it is a ritual that all the unmarried women wear a saree which is white in colour and has a specific red lining/ border.


● The 10th day also called Dashmi which marks the farewell of Maa Durga, begins with sindoor khela or Devi baran. In sindoor khela married women smeer sindoor and after that play Holi with it.


● After the farewell in every house in Bengal sweets and made and it is a ritual that whenever a person visits their house they offer them these sweets and say Shubhodashmi.

● The most amazing part is to see the cultural beauty, the warmth of nature and of course the divinity of air that rejuvenates spirituality.


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