Durga Puja ends with immersion of idols

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Thursday, 06 October 2011

Author / Source : Independent Online Report

Dhaka:The five-day-long Durga Puja, the greatest of Hindu festivals, ended on Thursday with the solemn immersion of Goddess Durga idols in the capital and elsewhere in the country. In the morning, devotees celebrated Bijoya Dashami, the last day of the festival, at around 28,000 puja mandaps across the country.

Bijoya Dashami is the special ceremony to reaffirm peace and good relations among the people. Families visited each other to share sweetmeats during the Dashami festivity. Married Hindu women put vermilion on each other's forehead and face on the occasion.

In the evening, the devotees bade solemn farewell to their deity Durga and her children Lakshmi, Saraswati, Kartik and Ganesh through immersion of their idols in the water while inviting her to return to them next year.

In the capital, thousands of men, women and children joined the historical idols immersion procession taken out from Palashi near Dhakeswari National Temple with 58 trucks carrying idols of Durga.

The procession ended at Bahadur Shah Park after parading through different streets of the capital. In the evening, the idols were immersed in the Buriganga amid sadness and tears.

The government took tight security measures as members of different law enforcement agencies escorted the processions until immersion of the idols. A huge number of law enforcers including Rapid Action Battalion stood guard over the puja mandaps.

Our reporter from the Dhakeswari Temple spot reported that idols from around 80 Puja Mandaps were gathered there for the procession.

Hindu community leaders attended the immersion ceremony at Waizghat in the capital.

Idols from around 100 Puja Mandaps were gathered at Shankhari Bazar Puja Mandap and immersed in the Buriganga at Ganaktuli.

This year 180 mandaps were established in Dhaka to celebrate the festival.

Durga Puja is the worship of 'Shakti' or divine power embodied in Devi Durga. It symbolises the battle between good and evil where the dark forces eventually succumb to the divine.

Thursday was a public holiday marking the occasion.

The state-run and private television channels and radios aired special programmes while newspapers published special supplements on the great religious festival.

CHITTAGONG

Devout Hindus immersed the idols in the Bay of Bengal along the Patenga sea beach in the port city amid a security cordon effected by Chittagong Metropolitan Police and RAB, reports a private television channel.

Chattagram Mahanagar Puja Udjapan Parishad organised the immersion ceremony in association with Chittagong City Corporation (CCC).

Thousands of devotees from all corners of the city, carrying the idols gathered since morning along the beach and immersed the Durga idols in a mood of gloom.