Zach Crawford
(ANSA) – New Delhi, December 16 – India celebrates UNESCO’s decision to inscribe the Durga Puja festival in Kolkata yesterday in the List of Intangible Heritage of Humanity. According to the release of the United Nations agency, the festival which takes place every autumn in the state capital of West Bengal is the only one approved out of twenty other nominated Indian traditions.
Prime Minister Modi hailed the decision, describing it as a “moment of pride and joy for every Indian”. “Calcutta Durga Puja is an experience everyone should have in life,” he wrote on Twitter.
“Every Bengali Durga Puja is more than a festival, it is a unifying emotion. We are at the height of joy,” said State Governor Mamata Banerjee.
During the week of the event, which takes place from the sixth to the tenth day of the full moon in the month of Ashvin, the sixth of the Hindu calendar, usually towards the end of October, organizations across the state set up nearly 40,000 “altars” and ceremonies in honor of Goddess Durga, also known as Khali. . In Calcutta alone, the events are around 2,500, with millions of people flocking for five days day and night into the city’s neighborhoods to honor the goddess in many arms, who rides a tiger, and to visit the ‘plains’, the amazing performances, are often very expensive. There are already 14 Indian events inscribed on the UNESCO List of Intangible Heritage, including Yoga and the Kumbh Mela, the world’s largest religious pilgrimage, which were accepted into the list in 2016 and 2017 respectively (ANSA).
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Laurence Malcom
