Fairs and Festivals of Kolkata
Kolkata celebrates lot many festivals and fairs for a year! Known to be the land of 13 festivals in 12 months, Kolkata is celebrating something or the other throughout the year.
Keeping up with the reputation of the title, ‘The City of Joy’, Kolkata hosts a number of fairs and actively celebrates many festivals round the year of which Durga puja is known world over.
Besides Durga puja, Kolkata celebrates many other festivals with zest and zeal. Few of the important festivals of Kolkata are Nabobarsha, Poila Baisakh, Dol Purnima, Kali Puja, Lakshmi Puja, Saraswati Puja, Shivratri and Rath Yatra.
Nabo barsho or Poila Baisakh
Nabo barsho or Naba Barsha is the Bengali New Year which is celebrated in the Hindu month of Baisakh (April).
Synonymous with Poila Baisakh, which means first day of the month of Baisakh, Nabo barsho or Poila Baisakh, marks the celebration of the beginning of the month of harvest.
Poila Baisakh or Nabo Barsho is celebrated around 15 April. The exact date is decided as per the lunar calendar of Bagabda.
On Nabo barsho, people greet each other forgetting their differences, exchange sweets, dress in their new clothes and offer prayers to Gods and Goddesses seeking their divine blessings.
Businessmen close their old accounts and start afresh with new account books after seeking divine blessings for prosperity ahead.
The month of Baisakh as such is considered auspicious where people in Kolkata make new beginnings, start new ventures, plan weddings and buy new items.
Durga Puja
Durga Puja is the most important festival of Kolkata. Celebrated on a grand scale, with a series of rites and rituals, Durga Puja is what Kolkata is known for all over the world.
Grand festivities, firm beliefs, amusing rituals, interesting legends and splendid colourful celebrations… make the festival of Durga Puja even richer and more exciting!
The festival of Durga Puja is dedicated to Goddess Durga incarnate of Lord Shiva’s wife Parvati), who is believed to have emerged from the collective powers of all Gods and Goddesses to kill demon Mahishasura who was booned that no man or god could kill him.
When Gods could no longer bear the terror he was spreading, they all came together and devised a plan. A feminine divine form with powers of all the deities was born to kill Mahishasura.
This divine form is symbolised as a beautiful angry Goddess riding on a lion with a pretty crown on her loose thick mane.
Goddess Durga in her supreme form of divine feminine power is seen with 10 arms, holding sword, conch, discus, rosary, bell, kalash, bow, arrow and spear and killing Mahishasura with a trident.
Durga Puja in Kolkata is a 10 day long affair though preparations and festivities can be smelt in the air much early. Artisans in Kumartuli in Kolkata are renowned for sculpting beautiful life sized earthen statues of Durga Maa. They start preparing statues much in advance.
While the statues are sculpted days in advance, eyes of the Goddess are painted ceremoniously during the auspicious period of Chokkhu Daan. It is believed that it is during this period of Chokkhu daan, when the artisans are painting the Goddess’s eyes, that the Goddess descends on earth.
Chokku Daan coincides with Mahalaya, the day when families get together to offer shradh to the members of the family who have passed away.
On the sixth day of the Navratri, that is Shashti, the Goddess is brought in homes or the stupendously decorated pandals where thousands of devotees and visitors gather to pay their tribute and revel in Durga Mata’s glory till the end of the Puja on Vijayadashami.
Then the Goddess is dressed in beautiful saree, red vermillion, magnificent ornaments and crown and is offered flowers and sweets.
On the seventh Navratri, that is Saptami,is Kola Bou Bath or Pran Pratishthan, that is the ritual of invoking the presence of the goddess in the idol. A kola bou, that is a banana plant is carried for a bath to the banks of the Ganges, and draped in a red sari is carried back, in huge processions, to be placed near the Goddess.
With the stage set perfectly, the festivities gain pace manifold. People gather in hordes to offer their prayers and then go miles pandal hopping with families and friends. Lot many cultural programs also take place during the puja days enacting mythological stories or even taking up social causes to spread awareness.
On the tenth day of the Durga Puja, that is, on Vijayadashami, Goddess Durga is said to have gained victory over Mahishasura and having completed her mission is ready for leaving earth to merge with the Eternal form.
Goddess Durga is bid adieu by her devotees with much fanfare and offerings. Huge processions are carried out and the Goddess is carried to the Ganges for ‘visarjan’.
The procession is initiated by women, mostly married women, who gather together dressed in splendid red bordered sarees and ornaments and play with vermillion in a ceremony called ‘sindoor khela’. Vermillion is a sign of marriage and fertility in most Indian societies.
On ‘Sindoor Khela’, married women apply sindoor to the Goddess and then smear it on eachother wishing for a long and happy married life.
Finally, people bid the Goddess goodbye with ‘Visarjan’, though the festivities continue till Kali puja or Dipabali.
Lakhs of tourists visit Kolkata during the Durga Puja to witness this beautiful festival.
Ganga Sagar Mela
Ganga Sagar mela is a grand fair held at the Sagar island also known as Ganga Sagar in the Bay of Bengal about 100km south of Kolkata.
Spread over an area of about 300 Sq km, Sagar Island is a large island with a population of over 1.65 L. Ganga Sagar Island is part of Sunderbans Tiger Reserve and is home to the endangered Royal Bengal Tiger.
Every year on Makar Sankranti, Ganga Sagar Island is visited by lakhs of devotees who gather here to attend the world renowned Ganga Sagar Mela.
Ganga Sagar Mela is one the most accredited fairs in the state seeing the second largest congregation of mankind after Kumbh Mela.
Lakhs of people from all over the country gather here at the confluence of the holy river Ganga and the Bay of Bengal to take a dip in what is considered as holy water.
This is where the pious river of Ganga ends and merges into the sea!
Ganga is considered as the holy river by Hindus. Ganga emerges from the Gangotri glacier and comes gushing through the Himalayas slowing down a bit in the plains of the holy city of Haridwar andthen flowing further down and south to merge finally here in the Bay of Bengal.
Ganga Sagar Mela is held every year to celebrate the descent of Ganga on earth from heaven which is said to be the actual abode of River Ganga.
Legend associated with Ganga Sagar Mela
As the story associated with the Ganga Sagar Mela goes, one virtuous King Sagar had performed the Ashwamedha Yagna 99 times successfully, which Lord Indra found enviable.
So, when King Sagar went on to perform the Ashwamedha Yagna for the 100th time, Lord Indra played foul by capturing the horse and tying it in the premises of sage Kapila’s ashram.
King Sagar had 60,000 sons by one queen and a son by another queen by whom he had a grandson Anshumanth.
Now, when the Yagna’s horse, which was supposed to return to the point after completing a round of earth, went missing, the 60,000 sons of King Sagar went looking for it and found it in Kapil Muni’s ashram.
Misunderstanding that the sage had tied it there, the princes interrupted the sage’s meditation and misbehaved with him. Losing his temper Kapil muni baned them and burnt all 60,000 of them to ashes then and there!
When they did not return to King Sagar, the king sent his grandson Anshumanth to look for his uncles.
Following their footprints, Anshumanth reached the Kapil Muni’s cottage and saw a mound of ashes there. Humbly he enquired the sage who narrated the whole episode.
Anshumanth was naturally saddened by the event and humbly asked the sage as to how he could salvage the souls of his uncles.
Kapil Muni advised him to bring the holy river Ganga down to the earth to wash over their ashes which alone could salvage their souls.
Anshumanth served penance for good long years to placate Ganga into descending on earth.
Later, his son, King Dilip followed his father’s footsteps and spent his lifetime in efforts to please Ganga. However, this was not good enough for Ganga. But the clan did not give up!
King Dilip’s son, Bhagirath, under Lord Vishnu’s guidance, requested Lord shiva to bear the weight of the Ganga, gushing with full force, which otherwise would have destroyed the earth.
Lord Shiva agreed and bore the cascading Ganga, letting it trickle down slowly on earth meandering through the labyrinth of his dense matted hair.
River Ganga then gently descended on Himalayas and meandered its way through to the place where the ashes of the princes lay. Washing over those, the pious Ganga salvaged their souls.
Kali Puja
Kali Puja is one of the important festivals in Bengal. Held in accordance with the lunar calendar, Kali Puja usually falls in October end or November.
On this day, Goddess Kali, Goddess of destruction as per Hindu mythology, is worshipped. Goddess kali is believed to ward off evil and symbolises strength.
Kali Puja is conducted at midnight of the new moon night in the Hindu month of Kartik.
Kali Puja of Kolkata mostly coincides with the festival of lights, Diwali, known as Dipabali in Bengal and is celebrated with equal fervour and in same style.
People dress up in their best, light clay lamps (diyas) and children burst crackers.
Saraswati Puja
Saraswati Puja is another festival celebrated zealously in the state of West Bengal. The festival is dedicated to Goddess Saraswati, The Hindu Goddess of Learning.
On the day of Saraswati Puja, the youngest girls in the family are dressed in yellow saris and boys wear traditional clothes to offer their prayers and pay gratitude to The Goddess of Learning, Goddess Saraswati.
On Saraswati Puja, students worship books and seek blessings of the Goddess for successful endeavours. Interestingly, children are exempted from their routine studies on this day.
The festival of Saraswati Puja falls in January or February.
Dol
Dol in Bengal or Kolkata is what Holi is in North India, a festival of colours. This is when all come out to play with colours, both wet and dry. A beautiful festival, Dol marks the augment of Spring.
Rath Yatra
Rath Yatra Kolkata is the world’s second largest Rath Yatra after Jagannath Yatra in Puri, Orissa in India.
Dedicated to Lord Jagannnath, an incarnation of Lord Vishnu, Rath Yatra in Kolkata is a grand affair. Lakhs of devotees from all over the world travel all the way to Kolkata to be a part of the Rath Yatra and pull Lord’s chariot.
Rath Yatra, Kolkata, is carried out in the month of June or July. Huge chariots carrying Lord Jagannath, The Lord of the Universe as per Hindu mythology, his elder brother Lord Baladev and his sister Subhadra Devi are pulled by lakhs of devotees through the roads of Kolkata.
Rath Yatra begins from the ISKCON temple at Albert Street and meandering through the arterial roads of Kolkata, reaches Maidan where the chariots remain for about a week, and then begins Ultarathyatra (reverse parade) and finally the chariot reaches back to ISKCON Temple.
During the week that the Lord Jagannath’s chariot stays in Maidan, a series of cultural and religious programs are held by eminent artists, dancers and students.
The tradition of Rath Yatra began in 1972 when Srila Prabhupada, the founder of ISKCON, first rolled out the yatra from ISKCON Kolkata’s Radha Govind Mandir with 30 ft high chariot of Lord Jagannath, Lord Baladeva and Subhadra Devi on the streets and when thousands of people kept joining in the procession pulling the chariot, irrespective of their colour, caste or creed.
Since then, Rath Yatra is organised every year by ISKCON temple in Kolkata and is awaited anxiously by both local and foreign devotees.
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