Saraswati Puja: The Greatest Festival of Students in Bengal
Notes: Introduction-Saraswati Puja-its celebration: Worship in the morning-description of the image of Saraswati visitors distribution of sweets and fruits immersion of the image next day.
Festivals succeed one after another in West Bengal. The common Bengali saying "thirteen festivals in twelve months" is far from true. In fact, twice the thirteen is perhaps the true number of festivals in a year. The Saraswati Puja is the greatest festival of the students. It is not however, confined to students alone. Now-a-days it is celebrated in every club of a village or town. Many celebrate it in their houses.
The Saraswati Puja is held with all solemnity and grandeur. A big pandal is erected and it is tastefully decorated with flowers, leaves and sprays. An image of the Goddess is brought and placed on a shrine. The Goddess is generally seated on a white lotus with her familiar, duck flapping its wings by her side. She has a book in her left hand and a lyre in the right. A priest is appointed to worship the image. He comes in the morning and worships it. The palas flowers, mango buds and barly ears are essential to the worship of Saraswati. When the worship is over people offer floral oblations to the Goddess and pray to Her for knowledge. The priest comes again in the evening and performs the Arati. Hundreds of men, women and children come to see the image all the day. Sweets and fruits are distributed among the children. The next day the image is taken round the village or town in grand procession and immersed in a river.
