News Desk :
The five-day Sharadiya Durga Puja, the largest religious festival of the Hindu community, concluded on Thursday with the immersion of Goddess Durga’s idols across the country, marked by deep devotion, vibrant rituals and solemn religious fervor.
On Bijoya Dashami, the final day of the festival, colorful processions carrying idols were brought out from temples and puja mandaps.
Devotees chanted mantras, beat traditional drums (dhak-dhol), blew conch shells and performed uludhoni (ceremonial ululation) before immersing the idols in nearby rivers, ponds or other water bodies, reports BSS.
Earlier in the day, married Hindu women, dressed in traditional white sarees with red borders, participated in Sindur Khela – a symbolic ritual where women offered vermillion and sweets to the goddess, then smeared each other’s faces with sindur and exchanged greetings for marital bliss.
Temples and mandaps across the country, including Dhakeshwari National Temple, Ramna Kali Mandir, Ramakrishna Mission and Math, Siddheshwari Kali Mandir and others, witnessed huge gatherings of worshippers throughout the day.
The Dashami Puja was performed in the morning, followed by Darpan Bisarjan – a symbolic ritual offering the goddess’s reflection to water before her formal departure. Priest Sadhan Chakrabarty described it as the “real farewell,” marking the end of the divine presence in the idol.
After the rituals, processions moved through city streets toward immersion points. Traditionally carried on bamboo frames, many idols were now transported on decorated trucks or boats for immersion, often taken mid-river for Bisarjan.
Devotees bid farewell to the goddess chanting “Aschhe Bochhor Abar Hobe” (Durga Puja will return next year), reflecting both joy and emotion.
In Dhaka, key mandaps at Dhakeshwari, Ramakrishna Mission, Kalabagan, Banani, Ramna, Shankhari Bazar and other areas drew thousands of devotees.
