Durga Puja celebrations begin as Pitru Paksha ends: Devotees bring idols to pandals ahead of festivities | Photos
Artisans spend months sculpting the Durga idols. The arrival of the idols are seen as the beginning of the festivities, filling everyone with joy and homecoming.
As Durga Puja approaches, with main festivities beginning from September 28, the streets have come alive with pandals and devotees carrying intricately crafted idols of Goddess Durga to them. Today was Mahalaya, the beginning of Devi Paksha.
Mahalaya signifies the mythical departure of the goddess from the Himalayas to her paternal home. It is from this day that the Durga Puja fever begins. Durga Puja festivities peak on the seventh day after Mahalaya and end on the tenth day of Dashami or Dussehra.
Artisans spend months sculpting the Durga idols. The arrival of the idols are seen as the beginning of the festivities, filling everyone with joy and homecoming.
In Mumbai, devotees were seen carrying a beautifully decorated idol of Goddess Durga to a pandal ahead of the Navratri festival with chants of devotion and traditional music filling the air.
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The same enthusiasm was visible in Noida, where people thronged artisans’ workshops to select their Durga idols.
At multiple places in Kolkata, Bengal, where every street lights up with numerous Durga Puja pandals, devotees brought their Durga idols to the pandals amidst chants, music, and festive celebrations, marking the official start of the much-awaited Durga Puja festivities.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Sunday, September 21, wished people of the state on the occasion of Mahalaya. The Trinamool Congress supremo also launched the autumn number of TMC mouthpiece ‘Jago Bangla’ (Wake up Bengal).
She then offered puja at Lake Kalibari and also inaugurated their Durga Puja organised on the opposite side.
On the occasion of Mahalya Amavasya, a large number of devotees gathered in Kolkata for a holy dip in Ganga. They offered prayers to their forefathers and for departed family members on this Amavasya, marking the solemn ritual with devotion.
(With agency inputs)