Durga Puja festival: where it originated and how it’s celebrated

Every October, Kolkata, the “city of joy” and capital of West Bengal in India, lights up to celebrate Durga Puja. The festival is dedicated to the Hindu goddess Durga – daughter, mother, warrior and defeater of demons.

Durga Puja is an extraordinary example of intangible cultural heritage. It merges religious significance and secular messages, old artistic practices and new artistic innovations. In 2021, it was inscribed in the UNESCO Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage, meaning it has been recognised as significant for all humanity.

The event revolves around the symbolism and mythology of the goddess Durga. In slaying the bull demon Mahishasura, she ensured the victory of good against evil. She’s also a loving daughter and mother. Accompanied by her divine children, Lakshmi, Saraswati, Ganesh and Kartik, she descends back to her earthly home for five days a year – the duration of the festival.

Although Durga Puja has religious origins and maintains this profound aspect of its identity, it has evolved into a celebration of art and culture, transforming the city into a public art exhibition.

Different traditional arts and crafts are involved in the Durga celebrations. Primarily, the worship is centred on the creation of temporary clay idols, pratimas, representing the central scene of Durga’s story. Street installations, known as pandals are pop-up museums planned around different themes, arts and messages. They appear in every neighbourhood of the city, creating a vibrant atmosphere.

Soaked in deep emotions, the Durga Puja strongly embodies the cultural identity of the city of Kolkata and its diverse communities. It is the pride of people and neighbourhoods, and the festival’s essence goes beyond religious belief and devotion, the festive celebrations, and its significance for livelihoods and the economy.

The Durga Puja’s core significance is in the way it unites communities. People from all backgrounds, with no distinction for religion or social classes, are integral parts of its organisation, production and celebration.

Making the idols

Specific rituals characterise each day of the festival day, including the making of the goddess idol.

The most important ritual, the Chokkhu Daan, happens on the first day of the Mahalaya, marking the beginning of the goddess’ journey to earth after having defeated the demon Mahishasura. During the ritual, the eyes of the Durga idol are drawn. This act has a central significance, believed to be the moment the divine is infused in the statue, bringing her alive. Only senior artisans from the idol-maker community are allowed to draw her eyes.

The idol-making practice has been passed on within families and generations for over 200 years. Kumurtuli is the idol-making potters’ colony in north Kolkata, one of the oldest parts of the city, near the river Hoogly, a branch of the sacred river Ganges.

It’s tradition that the clay for the idol has to come from the Ganges and return to the Ganges. In the final ritual of the festival, Durga Visarjan, crowds of dancing and praying devotees say farewell to the goddess by immersing the idols in the river. The mood among devotees is intense, with lots of excitement and tears.

To my mind, the most fascinating ritual and belief – for some, a legend of the past, for others, still in practice – links the making of the idol and sex work. Before the clay is worked and shaped into the goddess, it is left outside the house of a sex worker for a night, to absorb the good intentions and spirits left by men before entering to sin.

Spread by the proud Indian Bengali diaspora worldwide, the Durga Puja is increasingly becoming a global celebration. In the UK, Durga Puja celebrations in London started in 2009 with the Bengal Heritage Foundation. From a few devotee families, its popularity has reached 9,000 visitors over the past 12 years, aiming to recreate the spirit of the Kolkata Durga Puja.

On one occasion, idol makers from Kumurtuli were invited to London to create an idol combining the waters from the Ganges with the Thames. In another year, the ceremonial bath of the first ritual, Saptami, was practised by immersing a young banana tree (symbolising the goddess) in the water of the Thames. These hybrid practices position the Durga Puja as a medium to bridge cultures and to create a sense of global cultural unity.

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Simona Cosentino does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.