‘Autumn’ like a gust of fresh air brings in the cheerful blue sky with white patches of cottony clouds pushing off the gloom that kept hovering above for the last couple of months. Autumn brings an end to the season of downpour and makes way for the sunny days filled with the aroma of fresh flowers, the music of festivity and the joy of celebration. Let’s welcome the season of festivity, let’s celebrate Autumn.
The Sharodiya Durgotsav or the Durga Puja is the major and a grand festival of the Bengalis. In true sense, this magnificent festival is beyond any limit. It is a festival beyond any regionality, any ethnicity, any religious discrimination, any economical difference, any age, any orthodox tradition… it is beyond anything and everything. It is a festival beyond a festival… it is an emotion, a fever and a celebration of life.
Durga Puja, the five-day long festival is an integral part of Bengali life, culture and tradition. The autumn is the herald of the Durgotsab which is also called Sharodotsab. As per the religious scriptures, the worship of Devi Durga in the form of Basanti Puja is held in the Bengali month of Chaitra. Though less popular but is still celebrated in many Bengali households. The Sharodotsab is associated with or rather initiated by the mythological story of Lord Rama worshipping Goddess Durga in autumn, in quest of victory against Ravana in the war. The untimely worship of the Goddess gave it a name of Akal Bodhan. Gradually this became the much favoured and the primarily celebrated festival for the Bengalis.
Wanderlust 