“Vatican City” themed Puja Pandal welcomes goddess Durga

By Irudhaya Jothi

Guwahati, Sept 25, 2022: A puja committee in Salt Lake, Kolkata, has created a Durga Puja pandal (temporary shed) with the theme of Vatican City’s St. Peters Basilica.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee inaugurated the puja pandal on Sept 23 ahead of the Mahalaya on September 25, the first day of the ten-day Puja celebration.

Mamata announced in her Facebook post, “Today, with a lot of joy, I inaugurated the Sree Bhumi Sporting Club Durga Pujo, Salt Lake FD Block Durga Pujo and Tala Pratyay Durga Pujo. As we all immerse ourselves in the festive spirit, I urge you all to be safe and to celebrate responsibly.”

Speaking to ANI news agency, Sujit Bose, the Independent Charge of Fire and Emergency Services of West Bengal and president of Sree Bhoomi Sporting Club, said, ” Sree Bhoomi Sporting Club, which is celebrating 50th year this year, has the theme of Vatican City’s St. Peters Basilica.”

Many people, he said, often wish that they could travel to the Vatican City in Rome but only a few are lucky to do so. The club’s pandal will help them fulfil their wish, he added.

Vatican City, a city-state surrounded by Rome, Italy, is the headquarters of the Catholic Church and the home to the Pope. Saint Peter’s Basilica -one of the four major basilica’s in Rome – dates back to 1626.

It took 60 days and more than 100 artisans to complete the “Vatican City” themed Durga pandal.

Pandals are set all around the country for the week-long celebration dedicated to each form of Durga, a major Hindu goddess, worshipped as a principal aspect of the mother goddess Mahadevi. She is associated with protection, strength, motherhood, destruction, and wars.

The pandals of Kolkata bring new puja themes every year that are unique and innovative and devotees get to witness various themed Durga puja in the city.

Themed-pandals in the north Indian belt have become an inseparable part of celebrating the festival.

Durga puja symbolizes the victory of good over evil as it commemorates Durga’s victory over Mahishasur, a deceitful demon who pursued his evil ways by shape-shifting.

According to the legends, Goddess Druga appeared from the fusion of all the gods` energies in heaven to destroy Mahishasura. She had ten arms, and on each of them, she carried the most lethal weapon belonging to each god.

The festival falls during the Hindu calendar of Ashwin that corresponds to September–October. This year, Durga Puja begins September 25 and will end on October 5.

Devotees dress in new garments, chant aartis, visit temples, hand out sweets, and clean their homes. Some even fast to express gratitude to the goddess during the festival.

The festival is particularly popular and traditionally celebrated in the Indian states of West Bengal, Bihar, Assam, Odisha, Tripura, and the neighboring country of Bangladesh. For the Bengali community elsewhere, Durga Puja is extremely important.

Durga puja is an important festival in the Shaktism tradition of Hinduism. Durga puja in Kolkata has been inscribed on the Intangible cultural heritage list of UNESCO in December of 2021.

The festival is also in part a harvest festival celebrating the goddess as the motherly power behind all of life and creation.

Durga puja coincides with Navaratri and Dussehra celebrations observed by other traditions of Hinduism, in which the Ram Lila dance-drama is enacted, celebrating the victory of Rama against Ravana, and effigies of Ravana are burnt.

The primary goddess revered during Durga Puja is Durga but the celebrations also include other major deities of Hinduism such as Lakshmi (the goddess of wealth and prosperity), Saraswati (the goddess of knowledge and music), Ganesha (the god of good beginnings), and Kartikeya (the god of war).

In Bengali and Odia traditions, these deities are considered to be Durga’s children, and Durga Puja is believed to commemorate Durga’s visit to her natal home with her beloved children.

The atheist, Communists, Hindus, Christians, Jains, Buddhists, Muslims, Sikhs, naturists and animists join pandals hopping and the community celebration.