Durga Puja ends amid festivity across country

The five-day Durga Puja, the biggest religious festival of the Bengali Hindu community, ended on Wednesday with the immersion of idols of the Goddess Durga across the country.

Devotees bid a solemn farewell to their deity Durga and her children Lakshmi, Saraswati, Kartik and Ganesh through the immersion of the idols in water after inviting her to return to them next year.

In Hindu mythology, the goddess travels to Kailash, her husband’s residence, on Dashami (the last day of puja) with her children.

Additionally, Durga’s entrance and departure are highly crucial since her means of transportation on both days predict the outcome of the days to come.

This year, Durga arrived on an elephant and will depart on a boat. According to Hindu mythology, riding the elephant represents peace and prosperity. Goddess Durga has four other vahanas (transport) - lion, horse, and palanquin.

Durga Puja, which began on Saturday, October 1 was celebrated at 32,168 mandaps across Bangladesh, including 241 in the capital this year.

In Rajshahi, the puja ended with the immersion of the Goddess Durga in the river Padma.

The last day rituals of the festival were celebrated amid much enthusiasm and festivity. ‘Prasad’ and sweets were distributed among the devotees and the people belonging to other communities, who visited the Puja Mandaps.

Marking the Bijoya Dashami women devotees applied ‘Sindur’ on the face of goddess Durga and exchanged among themselves amid a joyous and festive mood.

Before removing the idols of Durga and other gods and goddesses from the altar of all mandaps or makeshift pavilions for immersion, the Hindu devotees danced and sang `Kirton’.

Thousands of devotees joined the colourful marches as the idols were being carried to the nearby rivers particularly the river Padma, ponds, canals and other water bodies for immersion.

The Durgousav was celebrated in 3,563 puja mandaps in all eight districts under the Rajshahi division in addition to 96 in Rajshahi city amid tight security measures this year.

Each of the puja mandaps was given 500 kg of rice on behalf of the respective district administrations for a smooth celebration of the puja in the division this year.

Members of the police, and Ansar-VDP were on duty round-the-clock while officials, politicians and leaders of different socio-cultural organizations visited the mandaps.

In Bogura, the five-day celebration of Durga Puja ended with the immersion of the Goddess Durga in the Karatoya river.

The Durgousav was celebrated in 679 puja mandaps in all twelve upazilas of the district amid tight security measures. In the capital, thousands of men, women and children are expected to join the traditional idols immersion procession after a parade through different city streets.

In the evening, the idols will be immersed in the Buriganga and Turag rivers.

In Gopalganj Durga puja will end with the immersion of the idols of 1,280 puja mandaps erected in five upazilas of the district amid much enthusiasm and festivity.