Durga Puja
17 October 2026 · movable holiday — May the drums fill the sky! Shubho Pujo!
Durga Puja is the biggest festival in West Bengal and an important celebration elsewhere in India and in Bengali communities around the world. It honours the goddess Durga and the victory of good over evil. The main days run from the sixth to the tenth day of the waxing moon in the month of Ashvin (September–October), and the festive period opens with Mahalaya, the new moon about a week earlier. The dates follow the Hindu lunisolar calendar, so they shift from year to year.
In Kolkata, the streets fill with artistic pavilions (pandals) decorated with imaginative designs and architecture. The dhak drums resound, and evening rituals are wreathed in smoke from dhunuchi (clay incense burners). Families gather, visit the pavilions, share food and exchange good wishes. The festival ends with Bijoya Dashami, when the images of the goddess are immersed in water (visarjan). Durga Puja in Kolkata was inscribed on the UNESCO list of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2021. Out of respect for the goddess, only symbols of the festival – a drum and an incense burner – cross the sky.
Flying across the sky: An ethereal, bluish-silver figure made of luminous dots and thin connecting lines, like a constellation, shaped as a large dhak drum crowned with soft white feathers
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