Bijaya Dashami Today

The five-day Durga Puja, the biggest religious festival of the Hindus, will come to an end today with the solemn immersion of the Goddess Durga across Bangladesh.

However, Bijoya Dashami will be observed amid high tension among the Hindu community as clashes -- sparked by rumours of the Quran’s desecration at a Comilla temple -- in different districts left several people killed and many injured between Wednesday and Thursday.

Devotees will throng Puja mandaps to celebrate the last day of the festival, recite mantras, offer flowers to the Goddess Durga (Pushpanjali) and pray for her blessings.

Mandaps around the country have been decorated with beautiful idols, showcasing the goddess in all her glory.

Bijoya Dashami is the special ceremony of reaffirming peace and good relations among people.

On this day, families visit each other to share sweetmeats. Married Hindu women put vermilion on each other's forehead on the occasion.

This year, the religious festival is being celebrated at some 32,118 puja mandaps throughout the country, including the capital Dhaka, reports UNB.

In the capital, thousands of people will make their way to the Buriganga River on Friday to observe the final phase of the festival -- the immersion of the goddess Durga.

Devotees, in tears, will bid farewell to the mother deity and her children – Lakshmi, Saraswati, Kartik and Ganesh – through the immersion of their idols in the water wishing Durga’s return next year.

Meanwhile, there will be strict security measures in place so that Durga Puja ends peacefully.

The five-day festival started on October 11 with the incarnation (Bodhon) of the Goddess Durga marking Sashthi.

Durga Puja, the annual Hindu festival also known as Sharadiya (autumnal) Durga Utsab, is the worship of "Shakti" (divine force) embodied in the Goddess Durga.