It’s technically a ten-day thing but it officially begins on the fifth day, known as “Panchami” (“Panch”= five). People of all places and all faiths can visit these places colloquially called “pandals” to admire the idols of the Goddess Durga. Most locals clubs have a specific theme to work on to decorate their separate pandals. Some may decide to take the traditional way, though.
It begins with Mahalaya. You better wake up early and set up your radio, because you don’t wanna miss this. It’s the story of the very very very ancient “Victory of Good over Evil” through the tale of Goddess Durga defeating the demon Mahisasur (“Mahis”=ox, “asur”=demon ). Mahalaya is followed by the first four days “prothoma”, “ditiya”, “tritiya” and “choturthi” respectively. Nothing special, really. Just let the “pujor ashshash” sink in.
Saptami and Shoshti follow Panchami. Then we have Ashtami. That’s when we have “pushpanjali” (“pushp”=flower, “anjali”= wait, somebody will come over and explain…because I accidentally forgot).
Coming to Kolkata (capital of West Bengal, India) at this time won’t be such a great idea for peaceful folk. There are boxes spreading the message of noise pollution 24×7 with people flanking the streets from around 5. No vehicles allowed.
Ashtami is followed by Nabami (many non-Bengalis celebrate this as “Navratri” but I don’t know much about it) and then Dashami (you should have heard of ‘Dussehra’…go look it up), the tenth and final day of the Durga Puja. That’s when all the idols are immersed in water .This is accompanied by “Sindur khela” as well as “Dhunuchi naach”. I probably put pictures of both down below…