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New Year's Day |
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The first festival of the year in
West Bengal is the New Year's Day. Although
most communities follow their own calendar, the first day of the Christian year
is celebrated by all. Buses are garlanded. The state is in a festive mood, with
decorations from Christmas past still very much in evidence.
As year come to an end the people of West Bengal and get ready to mark the beginning of another year. On the
night of 31st December, which is usually chill due to peak
winter people forgetting the cold are seen to move around the side
walks of Park Street through out the night merry making to glory.
On New Year's Eve, parties are organised in clubs, hotels,
restaurants and private homes. People go to bed late. Those who
manage will go to the races the next day in the afternoon-a
hangover 'must' in Kolkata. |
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Makar
Sankranti |
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The
Makar Sankranti festival which falls in
mid-January and marks the winter solstice. During this period
pilgrims in numbers more than 500,000 gather on Sagar Dwip, an
island some 150 kilometers (93 miles) south of Kolkata, for the
three-day Ganga Sagar Mela. The pilgrims on the way to the mela
sleeps in make shift tents erected in the Maidan . The festival
lasts from 12th to 14th. The Baul Mela beings on the day the
Ganga Sagar Mela ends. Bauls are singers belonging to the
Hindu Vaishnab and Sufi Muslim from all over Bengal as well
as from Bangladesh. They gather at Bolpur which is 150 kilometers
(93 miles) west of Kolkata and sings enchanting devotional tunes
for three nights |
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Saraswati Puja |
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Late in January or early February,
Saraswati
Puja, the festival of Goddess of Learning, is celebrated by students,
artists and professors.
As the winter recedes and spring approaches, the
city get ready for the celebration of Vasant Panchami. On this day primarily
students, artists and professors offer worship to Devi Swaraswati the
Goddess of Knowledge and music. |
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Dol Purnima |
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Dol Purnima more popularly known as
Holi is a
festival of colours and the city celebrates it with the
traditional gaiety. Holi is also known as the Dol Yatra in Bengal.
It is celebrated by people of all walks of life both young and old
by smearing each other with coloured powder especially red.
Colours are also mixed with water and sprayed on passer-by.
The ever enthusiastic group enjoys by drinking bhang which is a
mild-milk beverage laced with marijuana. Social barriers are
broken. This is a time when lower-cast plays with the upper-cast
and poor may play with the rich. |
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Noboborsho |
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Marking the
beginning of the Bengali New Year is Noboborsho. It falls on the mid of April the approach of summer.
Bengali businessman opens his new account book the halkhata. The
account books, statues of Ganesh and Lakshmi is taken to the
Temple for blessings. The businessmen invites their loyal
customers in the evening who make a token payment to open
the new account book. The shops are heavily decorated with floral
garlands, young banana and auspicious mango leaves and the
customers are greeted with sweets.
A few days after noboborsho, on Mahabir Jayanti,
the birth anniversary of last and greatest Jain prophets,
there are processions of the Svetamber Sect from Harrison Road to
Kalakar Street, and of the Digambar Sect from Belgachaia to
Baisakh Lane. |
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Rath
Yatra |
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The Rath Yatra festival falls on the late of
June or early July. It is celebrated in the honour of Lord
Jagannath an avatar of Vishnu. Processions are organised in
Kolkata by the ISKON and in Serampore, north of Kolkata. People scramble around to get a chance to pull the sacred
rope of the huge chariot. Replicas
of Jagannath's chariot are sold at Kalighat. Children decorate their
chriots with flowers and place in them clay images of Jagannath, his
brother Balaram and sister Subhadra. |
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Vishwa
Karma Puja |
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Vishwa Karma
is the
God of Creation. On the 17th. September every year the festival is
celebrated by all industrial houses, artists, craftsmen, and
weavers. The tools utilized during production are cleaned and all
machinery are repainted. The the statue of Vishwakarma holding a
hammer are erected in workshops. People are also found to be
flying multi-colour kites. |
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Durga
Puja |
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The start of winter
coincides with Durga Puja in October, the most important festival in
Bengal. According to Hindu mythology, all gods and goddesses of thee
Hindu pantheon endowed Durga with a portion of their own energy to
give her strength, or shakti, to destroy the evil forces. Some 2,000
pandals are erected throughout the city. The image of Durga
shows her slaying the most powerful demon, Mahisasur.
This is the season for gifts. New clothes are purchased. Shops overflow
with the latest goods. People take to the streets to visit
the thousands of puja pandals which spring virtually at every street
corner. The puja climaxes on Mahadashami,
the 10th day when the image is carried in decorated carts or trucks
in festive processions to be immersed in river Hooghly.
Northern Indian communities celebrated the festival of Dussehra on that day
commemorating Rama's victory over the devil Ravana, symbolising the triumph of
good over evil. At sunset, huge effigies of Ravana, his son and his brother are
burned on the maidan. |
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Laxmi
Puja |
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In the month of October,
five days after Mahadashami, on full moon, is the festivals of the
Goddess of prosperity Laxmi who is worshipped daily in most Hindu
household for the family's well-being. Public Pujas are performed in
the same premises as for Durga Puja. |
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Kali
Puja |
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 After
nineteen days of the completion of the Durga Puja, the city get geared
up to celebrate another popular festival, the Kali Puja. Kali is
worshipped as the Mother Goddess who protects from evil. The image of
Kali is bit frightening and usually shows her with a severed head in one
hand, her sword known as Kharga in the other. She is seen standing
on her foot on Lord Shiva's chest and wearing a garland of skulls.
The puja actually takes place at midnight on the day of the new moon.
During the Kali Puja all houses are lit up with candles decorated around
the house. During this puja, children and adults are seen to burst
firecrackers and lighting multicouloured sprinkling crackers. No
one seems to sleeps on that night.
Kali Puja coincides with Diwali, the North Indian New Year, the
festivals of lights. House-holds clean their houses and light up candles
all over their houses. Children and adults set off firecrackers all
night. No one sleeps on that night.
Two days after that is Brother's Day, Bhai Phonta or Bhatri Dvitiya.
Elder sisters dip their little fingers into kajol, a mixture of ghee,
rice-paste and almond paste, and put a mark on their brothers' forehead.
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Christmas |
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Christmas is not only celebrated by the Christian
community but even other people and communities of Kolkata as well. The famous
Park Street is highly illuminated and Flurry bake specials cakes which is sold
in no time. Christmas falling during winter which is a very pleasant time
of Kolkata, people are seen taking time off to hold picnics. There are parties
in clubs and hotels. The best masses are at St. Paul's Cathedral, candle lit on
this occasion, at St. Andrew's Kirk. |
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The
Muslim Festivals |
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Muslim
festivals are celebrated with intensity in West Bengal. During Bakrid,
marking the end of Ramazan and Id-Ul-Fitr in celebration of the
hajis,
the pilgrims to the Holy Mecca, the northern part of the Maidan
becomes the prayer grounds for Muslims who gather around the Saheed
Minar while the muezzin leads the sessions from the top the
monument.
The Shiite processions along Chitpore Road and,
in Metiaburuz, Kidderpore, Razabazar, Narkeldanga, Beliaghata and Manicktola are
really a spectacle to be seen. These procession are led by a white horse, the
Hussain's mount. Immediately following are the tazias, preciously handicrafted
replicas of Hussain's grave. The flagellants pound their chests singing "Hassan,
ya Hussain" and use muti-tailed whip attached with razor flagellate
themselves. |
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Jalpesh
Mela (District Jalpaiguri) |
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On the occasion of Sivaratri (February – March), a month-long
fair is held at Jalpesh near Mainaguri in the district of
Jalpaiguri. The fair centres round the age-old Siva temple
dedicated to Lord Jalpeswara. |
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Bera
Utsav (District Murshidabad) |
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Every year on the last Thursday of the Bengali month of Bhadra
mid-September, Bera Utsav is held at Lalbagh on the river
Bhagirathi near the palace of the Nawabs. Fireworks of various
size and colour add to the gaiety of the festival. |
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Jagaddhatri
Puja (District Hooghly) |
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Goddess
Jagaddhatri is worshipped in the Bengali month of Kartick
(November). At Chandannagar near Kolkata images of the goddess
are tall, pandals spectacular and the illumination unique. In
fact, the illumination part is the most attractive feature here. |
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Teesta
Tea & Tourism Festival (Inter-State) |
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Held in a series at Darjeeling, the Dooars and in Sikkim, the
Teesta Tea & Tourism Festival is celebrated with a view to
promote tourism in this region as a composite tourist destination,
with its bounties in tea, timber and tourism. The festival is held
every year in November – December. |
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Vishnupur Festival (District Bankura) |
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In the temple town
of Vishnupur a festival is organised every year between 27 and 31
December. Characterised by exhibition and sale of local
handicrafts and performance of the rich musical tradition that
Vishnupur boasts, this is an immensely popular festival. |
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