Bijaya Dashami today

News Desk :
On the final day of Bijaya Dashami, puja will begin at 6.30am today, pushpanjali at 8am and puja completion and Darpan Bisharjan will be held by 8.50am.
The five-day festival will end with immersion of idols of goddess Durga and her offspring – Ganesha, Karitik, Laxmi and Saraswati – and devotees will receive Shantijol (sacred water from where deities are immersed), reports BSS.
The Mahalaya, the auspicious occasion heralding the advent of goddess Durga, was celebrated on September 25.
Idol makers and artisans made idols for Durga Puja at puja mandaps.
President M Abdul Hamid will exchange greetings with Hindu community leaders and distinguished personalities at Bangabhaban today evening.
“The programme for the Hindu community leaders on the occasion of Sharadia Durga Puja will be held at 8 pm today in a limited scale,” President’s Press Secretary Md Joynal Abedin told BSS yesterday.
Nearly 50 distinguished persons , including Hindu religious leaders, members of Hindu Religion Welfare Trust, representatives of Bangladesh Puja Udjapan Parishad, Dhaka Mohanagar Sarbojonin Puja Committee and people from various professions of the community will join the programme, he added.
The guests were asked to attend the event following the health safety guidelines, including wearing masks and maintaining social distancing,
The day is a public holiday.
Generally, the idols were made diligently and methodically by the artisans to create exquisite pieces of artistry.
Durga Puja was celebrated at 32,168 mandaps across the country this year including 241 in the capital, according to Bangladesh Puja Udjapan Parishad.
Earlier, the parishad in a press briefing informed that the number of puja mandaps was 32,118 across the country in the previous year.
Parishad’s President JL Bhowmik said volunteers worked at every puja mandaps round the clock during the five-day Durga Puja to help the law enforcement agencies to avert any untoward situation.
In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, the number of puja mandaps decreased slightly in the previous year but this year the number increased.
In the capital Dhaka, the main puja mandaps are at Dhakeshwari National Temple, Ramkrishna Mission and Math, Kalabagan, Banani, Shakhari Bazar and Ramna Kali Mandir.
Major divisional cities, including port city Chattogram, Rajshahi, Khulna and Sylhet and district towns including Faridpur, Dinajpur, Jashore, Kushtia, Satkhira, also witnessed massive celebration of Durga Puja.
Puja shopping also got momentum in the last week ahead of Puja as major markets and malls were crowded with customers.
Durga Puja signifies the birth of Durga with the blessings of gods, as a collective energy, to fight the demon king Mahishasura.
Exquisitely crafted and decorated life-size clay idols of the goddess Durga depicting her slaying the demon Mahishasura had been set up in temples and Durga Puja mandaps ahead of the celebration.
These idols were worshiped for five days and will be immersed in the river on the fifth day. The puja was performed in temples, homes and temporary mandaps.
The celebrations also include other major deities of Hinduism such as goddess Lakshmi (goddess of wealth, prosperity), Saraswati (goddess of knowledge and music), Ganesha (god of good beginnings) and Kartikeya (god of war).
Along with Hindu community in Bangladesh and West Bengal, Odisha, Jharkhand, Bihar and Assam states in India, and several ethnic groups, including Tripura, Hajong, Banai, Patra, Koch, Barman and Mahato, largely celebrated the Durga Puja.