One of the most significant Hindu festivals, Saraswati Puja, will be celebrated throughout the country tomorrow.
The goddess of knowledge, music, art, and culture is celebrated on Basant Panchami, which occurs on the fifth day in the Bengali month of Magh (between late January and early March).
Depicted as a graceful woman with a crescent moon adorning her brow, she is shown riding a swan or a peacock, or is seated on a lotus flower.
President M Abdul Hamid and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, in separate messages, greeted members of the Hindu community on the occasion of Saraswati Puja.
They pointed out the heritage of interfaith harmony and the government’s commitment to ensuring the rights of all people belonging to diverse religions to build a non-communal and secular “Sonar Bangla,” as dreamt of by the Father of the Nation, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
Major Hindu temples, schools, colleges, universities and other educational institutions stage the festival with traditional gaiety and religious fervor.
Students in particular seek the blessings of the goddess Saraswati in their pursuit of knowledge, art, music, and culture.
Traditionally, children are introduced to education and learning on the day of Saraswati Puja and this ritual is called “Hatekhori”. Toddlers are usually given a slate and chalk to scribble with on the auspicious day.
Bangladesh Puja Udjapan Parishad General Secretary Nirmal Kumar Chattarjee told BSS that rituals of Saraswati Puja will begin in the morning at the Dhakeswari National Temple.
“A large number of non-Hindu community members are taking part in the celebration of Hindu festivals which is a good sign of retaining the thousand-year-old non-communal Bangalee culture. This is the uniqueness of the Bengali nation and its culture,” he said.
Saraswati Puja will be arranged on the premises of Jagannath Hall of Dhaka University where a huge number of worshipers and others will visit the puja grounds around the playground of the university’s largest dormitory.
Jagannath Hall Provost, Professor Asim Sarker, told BSS that students from over 60 departments, institutes, and faculties of the university have made arrangements for the puja on the playground of the dormitory this year.
Puja will also be arranged at Ram Krishna Mission, Jagannath University, Siddheswari temple, Supreme Court premises, Farashganj, Shakhari Bazar, Tanti Bazar, and various other places in old Dhaka, Banani, Dhaka College, Eden Girls’ College, BUET, Ramna Kali Mandir and Maa Anandamayi Ashram, Tejgaon College, Stamford University, and various educational institutions in the city.
On the Dhaka University campus, the Puja is also organized at all female dormitories : Rokeya Hall, Samsun Nahar Hall, Bangladesh Kuwait Moitri Hall, Begum Fazilatunnesa Mujib Hall, and Kabi Sufia Kamal Hall.
Fine Arts Faculty students, however, are likely to take the lead at the Jagannath Hall puja with their creative and artistic works in the middle of a pond at the dormitory compound.
“A 45-foot gerua (mix of orange and red) colored Saraswati idol will be set up in the middle of the pond this year,” Uttam Kumar, one of the organizers of the Fine Arts Faculty’s puja told BSS.