Paul' Web Logs: Durga Puja 🛕 Oct 9, 2024 🕉️ Oct 13, 2024

Wednesday, October 9, 2024

Durga Puja 🛕 Oct 9, 2024 🕉️ Oct 13, 2024

🕉️ Durga Puja 🕉️

India’s Durga Puja

Celebrates Divine Feminine

Wed, Oct 9, 2024 🛕 Sun, Oct 13, 2024

Durga Puja celebrates the victory of the goddess Durga over the demon king Mahishasura.

It begins on the same day as Navratri, a nine-night festival celebrating the divine feminine.
Durga Puja's first day is Mahalaya, which heralds the advent of the goddess. Celebrations and worship begin on Sasthi, the sixth day.

Durga Puja (ISO: Durgā Pūjā), also known as Durgotsava or Sharodotsav, is an annual Hindu festival originating in the Indian subcontinent which reveres and pays homage to the Hindu goddess Durga, and is also celebrated because of Durga's victory over Mahishasura.

It is celebrated all over the world by the Hindu community, but it is particularly popular and traditionally celebrated in the Indian state of West Bengal, and other states like Bihar, Assam, Tripura, Odisha, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh (eastern parts) and some other countries like Bangladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka.

The festival is observed in the Indian calendar in the month of Ashvin, which corresponds to September–October in the Gregorian calendar. Durga Puja is a ten-day festival, of which the last five are of the most significance. The puja is performed in homes and public, the latter featuring a temporary stage and structural decorations (known as pandals). The festival is also marked by scripture recitations, performance arts, revelry, gift-giving, family visits, feasting, and public processions called a melā. Durga Puja is an important festival in the Shaktism tradition of Hinduism. Durga Puja in Kolkata has been inscribed on the intangible cultural heritage list of UNESCO in December 2021.

As per Hindu scriptures, the festival marks the victory of goddess Durga in her battle against the shape-shifting asura, Mahishasura. Thus, the festival epitomizes the victory of good over evil, though it is also in part a harvest festival celebrating the goddess as the motherly power behind all of life and creation. Durga Puja coincides with Navaratri and Dussehra celebrations observed by other traditions of Hinduism.

The primary goddess revered during Durga Puja is Durga, but celebrations also include other major deities of Hinduism such as Lakshmi (the goddess of wealth and prosperity), Saraswati (the goddess of knowledge and music), Ganesha (the god of good beginnings), and Kartikeya (the god of war). In Bengali traditions, these deities are considered to be Durga's children, and Durga Puja is believed to commemorate Durga's visit to her natal home with her beloved children. The festival is preceded by Mahalaya, which is believed to mark the start of Durga's journey to her natal home. Primary celebrations begin on the sixth day (Shasthi), on which the goddess is welcomed with rituals. The festival ends on the tenth day (Vijaya Dashami), when devotees embark on a procession carrying the worshipped clay sculpture-idols to a river, or other water body, and immerse them, symbolic of her return to the divine cosmos and her marital home with Shiva in Kailash. Regional and community variations in celebration of the festival and rituals observed exist.

Durga puja is an auspicious festival which is celebrated mostly in the parts of northern India. During this festival the streets are decorated with numerous lights and one can see a variety of designs. Few lights say stories about Indian culture and mythology. Some of them are flying elephants, gods and godesses, angels and animals too.

With this project we are trying to document these variety of lights and create GIFs from the video which was shot. We are trying to document and share as many as we can. We will keep updating new stuff under same project !