This is the one of the most famous religious festival celebrated in India  and  mainly West Bengal and particularly in Kolkata, in honor of the  Goddess Durga and celebrated  during the period of Navaratri. Durga Puja, also called Durgotsava and Navaratri, is an annual Hindu festival in the Indian subcontinent that reveres the goddess Durga. It is particularly popular in West Bengal, Odisha, Assam and Tripura, but all parts of India also.  It is celebrated for 10 days, starting from the sixth day until the ninth day, the Pandals with grand idols of Goddess Durga are open for the visitors.. While the rituals entail  of fast, feast and worship, the last four days–Saptami, Ashtami, Navamiand Dashami–are celebrated with much grandeur in India, where riding the lion is worshipped with great passion and devotion.

Durga Puja is  always celebrated every year in the Hindu month of Ashwin (September-October) and commemorates ‘s invocation of the goddess before going to  the war with g Ravana the demon king of Sri Lanka.  Another  story of  who first worshipped the ‘Mahishasura Mardini’ or the slayer of the buffalo-demon, by offering 108 blue lotuses and lighting 108 lamps, at this time of the year.

The origin of Durga  puja can be credited to the twelve friends of Guptipara in Hoogly, West Bengal, who collaborated and collected contributions from local residents to conduct the first community puja called the ‘baro-yaari’ puja, or the ‘twelve-pal’ puja, in 1790.

The traditional icon of the goddess worshiped during the Durga Puja is in line with the iconography delineated in the scriptures. In Durga, the Gods bestowed their powers to co-create a beautiful goddess with ten arms, each carrying their most lethal weapon.

The traditional clay image of Durga ,or pratima, made of clay with all five gods and goddesses under one structure is known as ‘ek-chala’ (‘ek’ = one, ‘chala’ = cover).

There are two kinds of embellishments that are used on clay–sholar saaj and daker saaj. The pratimas are traditionally decorated with the white core of the shola reed which grows within marshlands. As the devotees grew wealthier, beaten silver (rangta) was used. The silver used to be imported from Germany and was delivered by post (dak). Hence  the name daker saaj.

The huge temporary canopies–held by a framework of bamboo poles and draped with colorful fabric –that house the icons are called ‘pandals’. Modern pandals are innovative, artistic and decorative at the same time, offering a visual spectacle for the numerous visitors who go ‘pandal-hopping’ during the four days of the enthusiastic   Durga Puja.

The Durga festival is, in part, a post-monsoon harvest festival observed on the same days in some tradition of Hinduism. This festival opens at twilight with prayers to Goddess  Saraswati to grant us knowledge, wisdom, music, poetry, independent thought, inner knowing and creativity. Durga Devi who is the external and internal activity of all existence, in everything and also in everywhere. The day also marks prayers to  Ganesha  and also  visit to one or more Durga temples. May Ma Durga Bless all immensely in this scared occasion.