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| 2005 Durga Puja |
| Mahalaya |
 Durga Puja Durga Puja, the most important festival of Bengalis is the worship of 'Shakti' or the devine power. Kolkata (Calcutta) celebrates Durga Puja with overwhelming and unbelievable energy and dynamism. Goddess Durga symbolises the divine power. The Goddess is worshipped in the season of Sharat, and hence the occasion is also known as ‘Sharadotsab’. Every Bengali away from home, no matter which part of the world a Bengali might be in, long to hear the familiar sound of Dhak, be with his family and feel the festive spirit of Durga Puja. Sharat’s clear blue skies with their fleecy white clouds, the golden sunshine, the swiveling of the white ‘Kash phool’ in the autumn breeze, grass blades heavily laden with morning dew, ‘Dhunuchi nachh’, the mild fragrance of ‘Shiuli phool’, the sound of ‘Dhak’, feverish preparations for the Pujas, gifts, good food, and plans for long ‘adda’ sessions with friends gives a familiar tug at every ‘Bangali’ heart. This is the time when Bengalees start counting for ‘Devi Bandana’. Then comes the ‘Agamani’ - Mahalaya. It’s ‘Sharodiya’, yes! Bangali’s very own Durga Pujo. An old Bengali proverb says that if the ‘kash’ has started flowering, you know the rains are over and autumn has begun. The hour of the Goddesses is at hand and Bengal awaits them expectantly. Once a year, in the autumnal month of Ashwin, she comes home to her parents, together with her four children, Ganesh, Laxmi, Karttik and Saraswati, and enjoys all the love and attention lavished on her. Durga - Goddess of deliverance - comes to earth on the seventh day after the autumn new moon. Seven days before Her arrival starts the Devipaksha. The day is being observed as ‘Mahalaya’, the day of invocation. In the dark night of amabasya (new moon), people pray to Goddess Durga to arrive in the earth to ward off all evils. On the dawn of ‘Mahalaya’, homes in Bengal resonate with the immortal verses of the ‘Chandipath’ (chanting of the hymns of ‘Chandi’). Unfortunately, this visit lasts only three days, and on the fourth day she starts on her journey back to her husband's abode in the mountain kingdom of Kailash. |