Durga Puja / दुर्गा पूजा

Durga Puja, also called Durgotsava and Navaratri, is an annual Hindu or Bengali Hindu festival in the Indian subcontinent that reveres the goddess Durga.

It is observed in the Hindu calendar month of Ashvin, typically September or October of the Gregorian calendar. 

A multi-day festival that features elaborate temple and stage decorations (pandals), scripture recitation, performance arts, revelry and processions, Durga Puja is particularly observed by Hindus in eastern and northeastern states of India, in Bangladesh and in Nepal where it is called Dashain.

It is a major festival in the Shaktism tradition of Hinduism across India.

Durga Puja festival marks the battle of goddess Durga with the shape-shifting, deceptive and powerful buffalo demon Mahishasura, and her emerging victorious.

Thus, the festival epitomises the victory of Good over Evil, but it also is in part a harvest festival that marks goddess as the motherly power behind all of life and creation.