Durga Puja: What, Why, When, How

What it is

Durga Puja is the great autumn worship of the Goddess Durga by Bengali families, and by families of Odisha, Assam, Tripura, Jharkhand and Bihar, in the bright half of Ashvin. Its five main days run from the sixth day of Navratri to the day after it ends: Maha Shashthi, Maha Saptami, Maha Ashtami, Maha Navami and Bijoya Dashami. Families see it as the yearly homecoming of the Goddess, as Uma, to her parents' house, with her four children Lakshmi, Saraswati, Ganesha and Kartik.

It is above all a community festival. Neighbourhoods and associations build pandals, temporary shrines, and set up clay images of Durga slaying the buffalo demon Mahishasura, surrounded by her children. People visit pandal after pandal, offer flowers in anjali, eat bhog together and join music and dance. UNESCO lists Durga Puja in Kolkata as part of the world's intangible cultural heritage. Abroad, Bengali associations hold their pujas in halls and temples, often over a weekend.

Why it is kept

The Goddess formed from light. The story of Durga is told in the Devi Mahatmyam, part of the Markandeya Purana. The demon Mahishasura had driven the gods from heaven. Their anger poured out of them as energy, and in F. E. Pargiter's translation, “The gods beheld the mass of intense energy there like a burning mountain” (canto 82). That energy became one Goddess. Each god gave her a weapon, the mountain Himalaya gave her a lion, and she defeated Mahishasura and his armies. The clay images of Durga Puja show this moment.

Rama's autumn worship (Bengali tradition). Bengali families tell, from Krittibas's Bengali Ramayana, that Rama woke the Goddess out of season, in autumn, before his battle with Ravana, and offered her blue lotuses. This "untimely awakening", akal bodhan, is why the Bengali puja begins with the bodhan on Shashthi. In this telling the spring Durga Puja, Basanti Puja, is the original season.

Uma comes home. Bengali songs of welcome (agamani) and farewell (bijoya) sing of Uma, the daughter of the Himalaya, married to Shiva in far Kailash, coming home for a few days each autumn. The joy of the Puja is a family's joy at a daughter's visit, and the tears of Bijoya Dashami are the tears of farewell.

The texts behind the story

• Devi Mahatmyam (Markandeya Purana, cantos 82–84 in Pargiter's numbering): the Goddess formed from the gods' energy, and the defeat of Mahishasura. F. E. Pargiter (tr.), The Markandeya Purana (Calcutta: Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1904). Pargiter died 1927: public domain. Quoted verbatim from canto 82, verse 11. (canto 82, verse 11, p. 474)
• Krittibas Ojha, Sri Ram Panchali (the Bengali Ramayana, 15th century), the akal bodhan; and the Bengali agamani and bijoya songs. Tradition, summarised in our own words.

When it is kept

The Bengali Durga Puja days follow the sunrise rule: Maha Shashthi, Maha Saptami, Maha Ashtami, Maha Navami and Bijoya Dashami fall on the days these tithis of the bright half of Ashvin are present at sunrise at your location. Sandhi Puja is the 48 minutes (two ghatikas) around the moment Ashtami ends and Navami begins; the app shows that window for your city. This is the rule of the Bengali panjikas as the engine applies it.

The date, from the calendar engine

• Durga Puja 2027: Puja falls on Tuesday, October 5, 2027 in Washington DC (computed for this city). The date is the same in New Delhi.

The date depends on your city. Every city we cover is on the year page.

Traditions and regional customs

• Bengali (Vishuddha Siddhanta and Gupta Press panjikas): the five days by the tithi at sunrise
• Odia, Assamese, Tripuri and Bihari communities: Durga Puja in pandals
• Navratri: the nine nights by the Smarta rule (engine id navratri-sharad)

Why the day can differ

The two main Bengali panjikas, Vishuddha Siddhanta and Gupta Press, can differ by a day, and each community follows the one it has always used; check with your puja committee. Because the days follow sunrise where you are, they can differ from Kolkata's by a day. Many community pujas abroad move the celebration to the nearest weekend; families can still offer anjali and keep the Sandhi Puja moment at home on the panjika days. The Sandhi Puja moment can fall at any hour, even at night. Bijoya Dashami here follows the sunrise rule, so in some years it falls a day after Dussehra (engine id vijayadashami), which follows the afternoon rule.

How to keep it at home

1. Maha Shashthi: the Goddess is welcomed in the evening (bodhan) under a bel tree or a branch of it, and her face is unveiled. Families visit the pandal and begin the days of puja.
2. Maha Saptami: at dawn a plantain plant with eight other plants, dressed as a bride (Kola Bou, the Nabapatrika), is bathed in a river or in water and set beside Ganesha. The daily puja and anjali begin.
3. Maha Ashtami: families fast in the morning until they offer flowers to the Goddess in pushpanjali, repeating the priest's words. Many pujas honour a young girl as the Goddess (Kumari Puja). At the Sandhi Puja moment shown in the app, 108 lamps are lit and 108 lotuses offered.
4. Maha Navami: the last full day of worship, with a fire offering (homa) in many pujas, bhog for everyone, and in the evening the dhunuchi dance with burning incense pots.
5. Bijoya Dashami: married women offer sindoor and sweets to the Goddess and to one another (sindoor khela), and the image is carried to the water for immersion. Afterwards everyone exchanges Bijoya greetings: the young touch elders' feet, friends embrace, and sweets go round. Abroad, immersion is often symbolic, in a tank or a tub, where local rules allow.
6. Prayers: the pushpanjali mantras led by the priest, the Devi Mahatmyam (Chandi Path), the Durga Stotra and the songs of agamani and bijoya. Many families also recite the Mahishasura Mardini Stotram ("Ayi giri nandini"), and Hindi-speaking families often close the puja with the aarti "Jai Ambe Gauri". The one-verse Sanskrit prayer "Kali Kali Mahakali", which an old Calcutta digest of the year's rites places in the autumn worship of Durga, is in our library too.

Fasting

Durga Puja is a feast more than a fast. The common fast is on Ashtami morning, until the anjali. Many Bengali families eat fish and meat during the Puja, and many keep Ashtami vegetarian. Anyone unwell should not fast without a doctor's advice.

Food

Bhog at the pandal: khichuri, labra (mixed vegetables), fried aubergine, chutney and payesh. At home and at stalls: luchi with alur dom, and sweets such as sandesh, roshogolla and mishti doi. On Bijoya, families make narkel naru, nimki and ghugni for visitors.

For children

Every autumn, the Goddess Durga comes to visit her parents' home, bringing her four children: Lakshmi, Saraswati, Ganesha and Kartik. Everyone gets ready to welcome her with music, flowers, new clothes and lots of good food. For five days there is joy everywhere. On the last day she goes back to her home in the mountains, and everyone says, "Come again next year!"

Something to do together

Draw the Goddess's family: Durga in the middle with her lion, and Lakshmi, Saraswati, Ganesha and Kartik around her, each with their animal: an owl, a swan, a mouse and a peacock.

Sources

• Panchang engine rule durga-puja (packages/panchang/data/festivals.json), with the sources it lists and its note that the Vishuddha Siddhanta and Gupta Press panjikas can differ by a day.
• F. E. Pargiter (tr.), The Markandeya Purana (Calcutta, 1904), cantos 82–84. Public domain.
• UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage, "Durga Puja in Kolkata": the community Puja, its days and its customs.

Related guides

• Sharad Navratri and Durga Puja
• Dussehra (Vijayadashami)
• Sharad Purnima (Kojagari Purnima)