festivals in bangladesh :: pt 1

So, rewinding a bit...I want to finally write a bit about the Durga Puja Festival in Bangladesh which I mentioned wanting to dedicate an entire post to back in October. If you remember the brief summary I wrote when I returned, I included a video at the end of the post which showed glimpses of this amazing festival that took place during my last week in Bangladesh's southern coastal town of Cox's Bazar.

Before I left for this trip, I wasn't too familiar with all the traditions and festivals that are celebrated throughout the year by the Muslim and Hindu religions...but after a quick briefing before I left, and then witnessing them first hand while I was away, I know that this time period was a perfect time to visit because of all the cultural richness I was able to be a part of. I arrived a few days before Ramadan, which is the largest Muslim festival of the year, complete with about 30 days of fasting from dawn to dusk. I landed in Dhaka, the capital city, and spent time with a couple of friends who are doing grad studies at a NGO there, and since the final celebration of Ramadan is determined by the moon, we weren't sure exactly what day this would be.

iftar with new friends • tapioca snack • henna art for the Eid celebrations
My domestic flight to Cox's Bazar on the southern coast, was delayed a day, as Eid, the holiday which marks the official end of the holy month of fasting, fell on the day I was scheduled to leave. As the majority of Bangladesh is Muslim, most of the businesses were shut down, including the airlines. The evening before this holiday, we were invited to share iftar with a local family who ran a clothes shop next door to my friends' office. Iftar is the first meal (more like a snack) at dusk which breaks the day-long fast. We arrived a few minutes before sundown was scheduled, and joined the family and a few of their friends on the floor of the small shop, which was now covered in colorful fabrics. We sat cross-legged and the plates were passed along with the roti (fried tortilla), dried fruit, juice, and a tapioca pudding kind-of dish. When everyone had food, we all just waited anxiously. At last, the call to prayer came from the speakers of the neighborhood mosque signaling the official sun-down and permission to break the fast...and everyone dug in.

The day after Eid, most people took off from the city to have a vacation with their families. It just so happened that the city I was headed to, is one of the more popular holiday destinations for the Bengali people as well...so me, along with hundreds of thousands of nationals, went south the next day. That week was spent trying to push our way through the hordes of people in the coastal town, but slowly during the week the crowd diminished...but not for long.

truck parade • dyed faces and an idol • women standing on the sidelines
A few days after the Eid excitement was ending, the people started amassing again for the largest Hindu festival of the year - the Durga Puja (worship of the goddess Durga who most people recognize with the 10 arms). We'd heard a bit about all the craziness that ensues during the main celebration, and I couldn't wait to witness it. Again, this holiday follows the patterns of the moon, so the exact day was hard to nail down. Finally on Thursday afternoon (just a couple days before I flew out), one of the local surfer boys came into our hotel room, as we were resting from the other activities that day, and announced that the festival had begun. We grabbed our things (mainly cameras and sandals) and rushed out the door. Immediately we heard music playing, horns honking, people yelling...a lot of chaos really.

Our hotel was just about a block from the beach on the main road which leads to the entrance to the sand. There was a never-ending line of trucks full of men with bullhorns, stereos, and paint guns throwing this bright dye all over people. Each vehicle had a homemade idol in tow, and everyone was yelling, jumping around, and celebrating.

never-ending sea of people
The entire trip, it was quite strange to me to have to always be accompanied places...because being foreign where there is almost no tourism, and a female, I had to adjust to not being so independent. Even with two guy friends of mine from the group, we still had a couple of the locals around who were helping us through the masses...and I'm so glad we had them, because as soon as we made our way to the sand, the sea of people was unending. The crowd literally spread on either side of the shore for as far as you could see. I read the next day that they estimated over 1 million people were on the beach. We were surrounded and stared at constantly, but we couldn't stop trying to take in the sense-explosion happening on all sides of us.

I did several circles just trying to get a 360º perspective, and after just a few minutes, we walked over to a media tower where announcements were being made on speakers, and my friend Russell, who was doing the filiming, was able to climb up a bit to get a better view on the whole thing.

watching the idols pass
From this area we were in a prime spot to watch some of the idols being paraded from the trucks to the water. Each idol is carried by a group of men, and along with drum beats leading the way, is taken across the enormously wide beach until it reaches the water. When they walk as far in the water as they can, and the idol falls over, they all celebrate the sacrifice of the goddess and her symbolic return to her husband. Overall the celebration symbolizes the victory of good over evil...

(Here's the video again, and you'll see this festival around the 2:42 mark).

Bengal Visual Montage from Russell Brownley on Vimeo
...part 2 of my experience at the Durga Puja festival coming soon...