Devotees across Hojai district of Assam tearfully bid adieu to their beloved ‘mother’ goddess Durga as her idols were immersed in ponds, lakes and rivers on Vijaya Dashami on Friday.
Devotees in Hojai sang and danced to the beats of the dhaks and the married women smeared vermilion on each others’ foreheads, cheeks as the idols of Mother Durga and other deities of her divine constellation were being taken to the pond in Bhootnath at Hojai Nilbagan Road,Kalibari at New Market and Shivbari at New Market for immersion.
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However, beneath the mirth lurks sense of sorrow as immersion marks the end of the four-day Durga Puja festivities.
A large number of people from various walks of life, draped in beautiful attires, gathered at different puja pandals of Hojai like the Shivbari Sarbajanik Durga Puja, Adarsha Durga Puja, Marwari Durgoutsav Samity, Bharatiyia Durga Puja, Ram Krishna Mission, Bishnupally Sarbajanik Durga puja pandal, Vivekananda Sango, VIP Colony, Harijan Colony and others to celebrate the immersion of the idols of Goddess Durga.
At Adarsha Durga Puja Pandal when an eighteen hands Durga idol was erected, the rituals of Dashami started with usual puja of the goddess amidst chanting of mantras, followed by the darpan visarjan or the symbolic immersion of the idols.
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Devotees saw the feet of the Goddess Durga in a mirror. Then the bidding of mirror (darpan) started like every year.
This year Baba Baidyanath Hardware took the mirror at Rs 81,000.
At Laxminarayan Temple puja pandal, after the rituals of Dashmi, women folk applied sindur on the forehead of the goddess and offered Maa Durga paan (betel) and sweets.
Here, in this pandal after the devotees saw the feet of Durga in mirror, the mirror was formally handed over by the committee members to Ramesh Kejriwal.
Like every year, at KaliBari and Shivbari devotees thronged in thousands to witness the immersion of idol of Durga, as here almost all the puja pandal committees of Hojai immerse the idol.
They come up with colourful procession, enjoying to the hymns and drums.
After the immersions were over the ceremony of distributing ‘Shanti jal’ collected from the places of immersion was held, a ritual that marks the finale of the puja fiesta.