Shubho Mahalaya 2019: With just a week left for Bengal's annual festival, devotees observe auspicious day to welcome Goddess Durga

-

Shubho Mahalaya 2019: Falling a week before West Bengal's most popular annual festival, Durga puja, comes Mahalaya. This year, the auspicious day falls on Saturday, (28 September), according to the Hindu calendar.

On Mahalaya, from when the countdown of Durga Puja begins, almost every Bengali wakes up at 4 am in the morning, tunes into the radio to listen to the recital of Mahisasura Mardini by Birendra Krishna Bhadra to mark the beginning of the much-awaited festival.

An idol of Hindu goddess Durga is seen at a pandal, in Kolkata, India on October 7, 2016, the first day of the five day-long Durga festival. Members of the Hindu community celebrate this festival worshipping the goddess Durga, who symbolizes power and the triumph of good over evil in Hindu mythology. (SOLARIS IMAGES)

An idol of goddess Durga at a pandal, in Kolkata. Courtesy: SOLARIS IMAGES

Celebrated at the end of Shradh or Pitru Paksha, a 16-day period when Hindus pay homage to their ancestors, the day is celebrated by Bengalis across the globe with much fervour and zeal.

It is a popular belief that mantras called 'Mahisasura Mardini' invoke the goddess Durga; the most famous one being Jago Tumi Jago.

The occasion is associated with different practices and rituals. Many people perform tarpan on this day to offer prayers to the departed souls of their ancestors and offer bhog to the Brahmins, along with food and other materials to the needy. Mahalaya is considered auspicious because Goddess Durga, accompanied by her children, is believed to have stepped on planet earth on this day.

The day, however, holds a different significance for the youth. For them, the start of Mahalaya begins with a tour to the picturesque lanes of the potters in Kumartuli in Kolkata, where the deity is given her eyes, in what is called as Chokkhudaan.

Chokkhudaan takes place at the break of dawn on Mahalaya, when the potters paint the eyes of Durga. These lively lanes also attract the young crowd of photographers who capture the idols coming to life, as they are given final touches on this auspicious day.

Idols of the deity are transported to various pandals from this day on, with the onset of the last round of preparation for the grand festival. Mahalaya brings with it a feeling of positivity, festivity and warmth ahead of the start of the most anticipated festival.

It is from this day that the Durga Puja fever begins. Durga Puja starts from the seventh day after Mahalaya and ends on the tenth day of Dashami or Dussehra.

This year, Maha Shashti falls on 4 October and the festivities will continue till 8 October, which is Maha Dashami or Vijaya Dashami.

With inputs from ANI



from Firstpost India Latest News https://ift.tt/2nX6dlU
FP Staff

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Both COVID-19 vaccine doses needed for good protection against B16172 variant

-
It’s been a concerning few weeks in the UK, with the B16172 variant first taking hold and then spreading to become dominant. This more infectious form of the virus, initially identified in India, is what we’re now going to have to live with – unless it is out-competed by another variant in the future. Worryingly, experts had predicted that B16172 might be able to escape some of the effects of vaccines, which if true would threaten to derail the UK’s plans to finish lifting restrictions from the end of June. However, Public Health England (PHE) has looked at the ability of various variants to evade immunity and says that the UK’s vaccines remain effective against the variants circulating, including B16172. On the surface, this looks like good news. But delve a bit deeper, and things get more complicated, says Paul Hunter, professor of medicine at the University of East Anglia. PHE’s research found a little drop-off in protection against B16172 among people who were fully vaccinated.
Read more

New coronavirus variant emerge in India: How should our COVID response change?

-
Image
After genome sequencing of over 10,000 COVID-19 cases in India, researchers have discovered a new variant with two new mutations which may be better at evading the immune system. In 15-20 percent of samples from the Indian state of Maharashtra (the state accounting for 62 percent of cases in the country) a new, double mutation in key areas of the virus has been detected. These are now known as the E484Q and L452R mutations. What makes the variant different? Both these mutations are concerning because they are located in a key portion of the virus – the spike protein – that it uses to penetrate human cells. Spike proteins attach via a “receptor binding domain”, meaning the virus can attach to receptors in our cells. These new mutations include changes to the spike protein that make it a “better fit” for human cells. This means the virus can gain entry more easily and multiply faster. Given what we have seen with other similar mutations , it might also make it harder for our immu
Read more

Aditya L1 Mission: Spacecraft is nearing its final phase, says ISRO chief

-
Aditya L1 spacecraft is nearing its final phase, and manoeuvres to enter the L1 point are expected to be completed by January 7, 2024, according to ISRO Chairman S Somanath. “Aditya is on the way. I think it has reached almost its final phase,” the ISRO chief told PTI on the sidelines of an event organised at VSSC to commemorate the 60th year of the First Sounding Rocket Launch. Aditya L1, India’s first space-based mission to study the Sun, was successfully launched on September 2 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) in Sriharikota. The spacecraft, after travelling about 1.5 million km from Earth over 125 days, is expected to be placed in a Halo orbit around the Lagrangian point L1, considered closest to the Sun. He said that the last preparations for the spacecraft’s entry into the L1 point are currently underway incrementally.”Possibly by January 7th, the final manoeuvres will be done for entering into the L1 point,” Somanath added. Among other tasks, it will capture and tr
Read more