Celebrating Puja

Durga Puja, the biggest religious festivals for Hindus, began on September 26 and ended on the 30th. The five-day festival begins with the “bodhon” (incarnation) of the Goddess Durga. While Durga is the focus of the celebration, other deities are also prominently featured and revered during the festival. The festival is one of the most colourful around with beautiful crafted idols dressed in many different hues and dazzling ornamentation. Artisans began to make the idols months before the festival and puja mandals are set up around the country. Devotees throng the festival areas in Chittagong in huge numbers. The religious festival culminates with the immersion of the idols of the goddess in rivers and water bodies around the country, in this case in the Bay in Patenga. 

Photo: Prabir Das