The five-day Durga Puja, the biggest religious festival of the Hindu community, will come to an end today with solemn immersion of idols of the goddess Durga across the country.
Devotees were seen making offerings to the goddess and chanting as drums rang out at the Dhakeshwari National Temple in Dhaka on Saturday.
As per the lunar calendar, Dashami’s Bihit Puja and
mirror immersion have been performed after Maha Nabami rituals this year.
Hindu devotees will gather Puja mandaps today to celebrate Bijoya Dashami and reciting the mantras, offering flowers to the goddess Durga and praying for her blessings.
The puja mandaps have been ornamented with beautiful idols, showcasing the goddess in all her glory.
Bijoya Dashami is the special ceremony of reaffirming peace and good relations among people.
On this day, families visit each other to share sweetmeats. Married Hindu women put vermilion on each other's forehead on the occasion.
The main ritual of this year’s Durga Puja started on Tuesday through Shashthi Puja.
Durga Puja is a celebration of Goddess Durga’s victory over defeating the demon, Mahishasura. It symbolises the battle between good and evil where the dark forces eventually succumb to the divine.
This year, the religious festival is being celebrated at some 31,461 puja mandaps across the country, including 253 in Dhaka.
In the capital, thousands of people are set to throng the Buriganga on Sunday to observe the final phase of the festival -- the immersion of the Goddess Durga.
Devotees in their tearful eyes will bid farewell to the mother deity and her children – Lakshmi, Saraswati, Kartik and Ganesh – as the idols will be immersed, wishing the Goddess Durga’s return next year.
Meanwhile, there will be strict security measures in place so that Durga puja ends peacefully.
Along with Hindu community in Bangladesh and West Bengal, Odisha, Jharkhand, Bihar and Assam states in India, and several ethnic groups, including Tripura, Hajong, Banai, Patra, Koch, Barman and Mahato, largely celebrate the Durga Puja.
