The five-day Durga Puja, the biggest religious festival of the Hindu community, will come to an end today (October 13) with the solemn immersion of the Goddess Durga in the capital and elsewhere in the country.

Devotees throng Puja mandaps to celebrate Bijoya Dashami, the last day of the festival. They recite the mantras, offer flowers to the goddess Durga (Pushpanjali), and pray for her blessings.

Each mandap across the country has been ornamented with beautiful idols, showcasing the goddess in all her glory. Bijoya Dashami is a special ceremony to reaffirm 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 foreheads on the occasion. 

This year, Durga Puja is being celebrated at 31,461 mandaps across Bangladesh, 947 less than last year. The number of puja mandaps in the capital is 252, compared to 248 last year.

In the capital, thousands of people are set to throng the Buriganga today to observe the final phase of the festival—the immersion of the goddess Durga.

Devotees, with tearful eyes, will bid farewell to the mother deity and her children—Lakshmi, Saraswati, Kartik, and Ganesh—by immersing their idols in the water and wishing Durga's return next year.

Meanwhile, strict security measures will be in place to ensure that Durga Puja ends peacefully. The five-day festival started on October 9, with the incarnation (Bodhon) of the Goddess Durga marking Sashthi.

Durga Puja, the annual Hindu festival also known as Sharadiya (autumnal) DurgaUtsab, is the worship of "Shakti" [divine force] embodied in the goddess Durga. It symbolises the battle between good and evil, where the dark forces eventually succumb to the sacred.

BDST: 1222 HRS, OCT 13, 2024
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