As a Bengali away from Kolkata, missing Durga Pujo feels like missing your birthday, New Year and your grandmother’s hug all at once. Durga Pujo is the biggest cultural event for Bengalis and is widely celebrated in the city of Kolkata. The whole city becomes like an art exhibition with every single street celebrating the festival. You are happy for everyone back home, but there is a part of you silently aching to be there — to be in the madness, the chaos, the crowds, the music, the light. The freedom to walk around all night as the entire city stays awake to celebrate for a week, something sorely lacking in the United States, despite having a big Bengali population.
This photo-essay includes photographs from the past few years when I was in Kolkata. It is an effort to feel a little less distant from my native place, as I live alone in a different country during this festival, for the first time in my life. According to the Hindu calendar, the auspicious period for the festival ends on Oct. 2 with Bijoya Dashami, but several Bengali communities around Los Angeles continue to celebrate throughout the following few weekends.
With all Durga Pujo celebrations in and around Los Angeles being far away from the USC campus, paired with the hectic academic schedules of students, it can be difficult for international students to attend.
“It’s honestly heartbreaking to see that there is not a single Bengali association in Downtown LA or even at USC that celebrates Durga Pujo,” said Premankur Banerjee, a PhD Computer Science candidate.“This festival is a part of who we are, something we have grown up with. Here, to even feel a tiny fraction of that spirit, we have to travel miles away to places that are hard to reach without a car. By the time you get there, it does not even feel the same. The excitement fades.”
During Durga Pujo, every street turns into a “vast open-air gallery” as Outlook Traveller describes, with thousands of people flocking inside to catch a glimpse of the Goddess, who is also referred to as “Maa” or the universal mother.
These temporary structures resembling an art exhibition are called a “pandal,” and Bengalis (as well as tourists and those from other communities) walk around all day visiting numerous such elaborately decorated pandals. Every locality has its own pandal, each with a different theme.
This tradition of visiting one pandal after the other is called “pandal-hopping,” which brings forth the essence of community gathering and cultural heritage. In addition to the temporary pandals, many families hold celebrations in their personal residential spaces, most of which are open to the public. People dress up in their best ethnic attire - such as sarees, kurta, salwar, lehengas - eat delicious food and walk across the city, pandal-hopping with their friends and families. Public transport remains functional 24/7 during this week for this sole purpose.
What exactly is Durga Pujo?
Durga Pujo is the celebration of the warrior Goddess Durga’s victory over the buffalo demon Mahishasura, who had usurped the gods’ power. It is believed in Hindu mythology that Durga fought with Mahishasura over ten days, ultimately beheading him to restore balance in the cosmic order. The festival commemorates her triumph, celebrating the victory of good over evil and the power of feminine energy — a concept rooted within the Shaktism tradition. It is usually celebrated as the most prominent cultural festival by the Bengali Hindus originating from West Bengal, India. Even though Durga Pujo and Navratri are observed simultaneously by Indians across the globe, they are not the same festival. The biggest difference being in the eating habits, as Bengalis eat non-vegetarian food to celebrate, while in other parts of India, the food is strictly vegetarian.
In Bengal, the festival is equated with a daughter returning to her parental home. This feeling of homecoming is the driving force behind the emotion attached to the festival. Everyone, irrespective of gender, who lives away from Kolkata tries to manage their office shifts or other commitments to make it back home during this week.
What is inside the pandals?
Every pandal has an ornamental temporary structure that houses a shrine for the main deity: the idol of Goddess Durga, along with her four children — Lakshmi, Saraswati, Ganesha and Kartikeya. Pandals can be made of various materials such as bamboo, wood, cloth or coconut shells —- depending on the creativity of the makers. Each pandal becomes a work of art. The usual themes revolve around women’s empowerment, mythology meets technology, AI, sustainability models, Bengali aesthetics and abstract artistic concepts. Even before the celebration begins, it is the makers of these idols who experience the exhilarating energy first-hand — as people crowd around their locality, to see them working, immersed in their craft, at a place called Kumartuli.
Why is Kumartuli special?
The historic artisan neighborhood in north Kolkata, known as Kumartuli, witnesses huge crowds several months before the Durga Pujo even begins. This is because people are interested in watching the entire process of idol-making by traditional sculptors living in that area. The area is called “Kumartuli” because the word “kumar” refers to potter or artisan and “tuli” means locality. Situated within the heart of the city of Kolkata, on the eastern bank of the Ganga River, Kumartuli is an ancient colony of clay-modelers whose consistent efforts have made Kolkata’s Durga Pujo recognized as an Intangible Cultural Heritage by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
While the whole city does not sleep throughout the hustle and bustle of the week, there are necessary moments of respite. Pandal-hopping can be tiring and sweaty, despite all Pujo spirit and high levels of enthusiasm. The weather is also quite humid in Kolkata.
While the festival is for ten days, it is the last five days that are considered the most important. On the day of Dashami, which is the last day and marks the end of this annual celebration, devotees perform the farewell rituals, which include:
“Sindoor Khela” - During this ritual, married women offer sindoor (vermillion powder) to Goddess Durga, applying it to her forehead and feet. Then, they smear sindoor on each other, celebrating Durga as a mother, a woman and a symbol of strength and love. It becomes a vibrant celebration of womanhood, sisterhood and devotion. Symbolically, it’s both a goodbye and a blessing - for love, prosperity and marital harmony.
“Visarjan” (Immersion) - is another ritual toward the end of the festival. After days of worship, the idol is taken in a grand procession, often with music — the traditional drums called “dhak”, dancing, and chants of “Asche bochor abar hobe!” (“She will return next year!”). The idol is immersed in a river or waterbody, signifying Durga’s return to her heavenly abode. For many, this is the most emotional part of Pujo. In recent years, due to pollution and environmental activism, the idols are only dipped in the river to satisfy the ritual and then taken out to be disposed of separately.
“Bijoya Dashami” - After the immersion, the ritual of “Bijoya” begins. People visit friends and family to offer Bijoya greetings, seeking blessings from elders and exchanging sweets. The traditional gesture of touching elders’ feet (pronam) is a major part of this tradition, showing respect and receiving goodwill (and sometimes gift money).
The festival creates a strong emotional and cultural bond, uniting people through shared traditions, community and artistic expressions. Whether you are in Kolkata or part of a diaspora community, Dashami feels heavy, but it is filled with hope and renewal, with the promise it will come again — even if you are away from home. This celebration is not just about the religion, goddess or the pandals – it is about homecoming, creativity and community.