Durga Puja

Durga Puja is an annual Hindu festival in South Asia that celebrates the worship of the Hindu Goddess Durga. It refers to all six days observed as Mahalaya, Shashti, Maha Saptami, Maha Ashtami, Maha Navami and Bijoya Dashmi. Durga Puja is widely celebrated in the Indian states of West Bengal, Bihar , Assam, Jharkhand, Orissa and Tripura where it is a five day annual holiday. Durga Puja also includes the worship of Shiva, Durga's consort and the worship of mother nature through nine types of plant representing the 9 forms of Goddess Durga is also done in addition to Lakshmi, Saraswati along with Ganesha and Karthikeya, who are considered to be Durga's children. Modern traditions have come to include the display of decorated pandals and artistically depicted idols(murti) of Durga.
In Kolkata( in West Bengal) where I stay , I went pandal hopping with my parents at 4 A.M. Each Pandal is preceded by beautiful lighting scenes that depict numerous culturally and historically significant events or sometimes are simply abstract. Here are a few pictures.