Durga Puja is the biggest festival of the year in Bengal and is celebrated with great verve and enthusiasm throughout the state.

Goddess Durga is regarded as an embodiment of 'Shakti', the cosmic energy which exists in all human beings. Beautifully decorated idols of Durga are worshipped in elaborate pandals (last year, there was even a gigantic 'Titanic' pandal!) for nine days. On the ninth day, these are carried out in procession for immersion into a water body.

Durga Puja festivities are celebrated over a ten-day period. It is very much a community celebration with neighbourhoods vying to bag the prize for the best pandal.

The months preceeding Durga Puja are marked by hectic activity. Artisans work round the clock constructing huge pandals and making beautiful clay images of the goddess.

Day 1: Mahalaya, special hymns are recited to invoke the Goddess to leave her Heavenly abode and visit the Earth.

Day 2 - Day 5: Hectic preparations get underway to welcome Durga 'Ma' or the mother to earth.

Day 6: This day is called Mahashashti. It is believed that on this day the Goddess arrives on Earth. Priests ceremonially give life to the clay idols of Goddess Durga. With this, the image is treated as the Goddess herself. Thus, worshippers flocking to have a glimpse of 'Ma' are expected to purify themselves through a ritual bath, prayers and sometimes even fast, before they have 'darshan' of the Goddess.

Day 6- Day 9: Prayers are offered every morning to the Goddess.

Day 8- Day 9: Between the eighth and ninth days, Sandhya Puja is performed.

Day 9: An auspicious day on the festive calendar since it is believed that the Goddess was conceived and sent to earth by the Gods on this day.

Day 10: Vijayadashmi is the grand finale of the festivities. The day celebrates the victory of good over evil as it is regarded as the day when Goddess Durga rids the three worlds of the evil and tyrannical buffalo demon, Mahishasura.Vijayadashmi also marks the day when 'Ma' returns to her heavenly abode.

On this day, idols of the Goddess are taken to the sea to be immersed. This ceremony is called visarjan.

But before this takes place, a ceremony called darpan visarjan or mirror immersion is performed Herein, the priest symbolically immerses the idol, by capturing its reflection in a bowl of water. The priest then proceeds to ceremonially extract the 'soul' from the image. This marks the return of the Goddess to the Heavens.

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