Indian street festival Durga Puja: guide to the celebrations, marquees, legend and dances
- The Durga Puja festival is devoted to the 10-armed Hindu goddess Durga who was created to vanquish a buffalo-headed demon
- A time full of exuberance, food and laughter, people from all walks of life mingle freely on the streets for the whole 10 days
In the crush of one of the world’s biggest street festivals, millions of Indians take to the streets of Kolkata in West Bengal to see a massive display of creative and innovative street art, as well as to sing, dance, eat and pray.
The Durga Puja festival, which this year takes place in early October, is devoted to the Hindu goddess Durga. It features pandals, or marquees, of all shapes and sizes that spring up in every available park, open space, neighbourhood square and community hall. The larger pandals can house a thousand devotees at any given time and more than a million can visit over the course of a single night.
The pandals have also occasionally been used to send various messages.
“It is heartening to see more and more pandals highlighting social and environmental issues,” says 49-year old Joydeep Sengupta, who grew up in Kolkata – also known as Calcutta – and who now is a banker in Hong Kong.
“Last year there was a pandaal showcasing idols of immigrants to highlight the Rohingya refugee crisis, while another was built from 20,000 reusable plastic bottles to underline environmental issues. One puja committee, the Samaj Sebi Sangha, used 12,000 pins to create a huge idol of Durga, to help the blind touch and feel the structure.”
The festival of Durga Puja (puja means prayer), also simply known as Pujo, is celebrated with great gusto.
