Asim Bando's KOLKATA BLOG

Jagadhatri Puja is now celebrating in the city along with Chandanagar and other parts of Bengal.

In the evening, Agni Puja is performed at home in an area cordoned off by four sugarcane sticks, kheer, sweets and fruits are offered to deities and then the entire family shares it. Chhath also connects to the folk and rural roots of worshippers. The folk songs sung on the eve of Chhath are mainly in Maithili, Magadhi and Bhojpuri dialects that mirror the culture and and social mores of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and the terai regions. According to Hindu mythology, Draupadi, wife of the Pandavas has a great power to cure any type of disease, including leprosy. She used to worship the Sun with utmost devotion. As a commemoration of Draupadi, it is performed in the form of Chhath Puja.

Chhath Puja, the biggest festival of the poorvanchali is being celebrated on Saturday with traditional enthusiasm and fervour as the devotees go to a nearby river or pond to offer prayers to the setting sun in the evening. The festival will culminate at Sunday dawn, after devotees offer Arghya to the rising Sun on the banks of rivers. Chhath denotes the number six and thus the 4-day event begins on the sixth day of Kartik (October-November). A festival of truth, non-violence, forgiveness and compassion, it is dedicated to Lord Surya (the Sun God), Agni (the Fire God) and Kartikeya. Chhath is the only time when the setting sun as opposed to its rising is celebrated for its glory as the cycle of birth starts with death. People fast for the whole day and in the evening they offer Chhath Sandhya Arghya to the setting sun by standing in knee-deep water. A million-lit lamps with thousands hands offering Arghya makes it a delightful sight.

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Today we perform a traditional social custom called : Bhai Fonta or Bhratridwitia. On this day, sisters of family pray to the god of death long life for their brothers depicting brother's forehead with liquid sandal taking with finger tip. Then, ate brother's sweets. Brother's also gives gifts to their sisters. It is a very sweet and age-old domestic festival observing just after Diwali.