Bangladesh’s Hindu community celebrates Durga Puja
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The Hindu community in Bangladesh began celebrating Durga Puja on October 17, observing the second day of the six-day Sharodiyo Durgotsab festival.
Devotees across the country participated in the Nabapatrika ritual, bathing and worshipping nine plants representing Goddess Durga. The festivities formally started on Friday with the Bodhan ceremony, invoking the goddess, and have drawn large crowds to temples and makeshift puja mandaps, especially at Dhaka’s Dhakeshwari National Temple.
This year, 33,851 puja mandaps, temporary places of worship, have been established nationwide, an increase of around 1,500 from last year. Organisers, like the Gulshan-Banani Puja Foundation, designed elaborate displays, with this year’s theme of ‘Jalaja’ focusing on water’s role in life and divinity. Traditional beliefs connect the goddess’s arrival on a horse to potential instability and her departure on a boat to future agricultural prosperity.
The government extended the Durga Puja holiday to three days in response to requests from the Hindu community, creating a five-day break when combined with weekend days. Authorities also increased financial support for the mandaps and implemented security measures, including a mobile application for monitoring and instructions to maintain electricity supply, to ensure peaceful celebrations. The festival will conclude on October 21 with the immersion of Goddess Durga’s idols in water.
