With due religious fervour and solemnity, Durga Puja, the biggest religious festival of the Hindu community, begins on Wednesday with Maha Shashthi puja at temples and puja mandaps (marquees) across the country, reports Daily Sun.

Puja organisers have finished all preparations while traders are doing good business as people of the Hindu community are buying different commodities ahead of the annual festivity.

Then the day will be celebrated with Bodhan and worship. The four major rituals of puja - Kalparamvo (the starting of the Pujas), Bodhan (consecration of the idol of Goddess Durga), Amantran (inviting the Goddess) and Adhibas (sanctifying the stay of the deity in the Puja area or pandals) - will be performed on Maha Shashthi.

According to Hindu scriptures and the Bangla almanac, Durga Puja is observed in sync with the moon's cycle.

The five-day festivity and prayers begin on the sixth day of the full moon and end on the tenth day.

Throughout the puja days, recitation of the verses from the Holy Chandi and blowing of conch shells (Shankha) and beating of dhaks (drums) will be heard at temples and mandaps.

The government has beefed up security for the Durga Puja and Bangladesh Puja Udjapan Parishad and Mahanagar Sarbajanin Puja Committee have chalked out a series of programmes marking the grand festival.

Addressing a press briefing at the Dhakeshwari National Temple on Tuesday, Bangladesh Puja Udjapan Parishad President Basudeb Dhar said this year, Durga Puja will be celebrated at 31,461 mandaps across the country, which is 947 less than last year while the number of puja mandaps is 252 in the capital compared to last year's 248.

"Due to the inability to prepare and sudden floods, devotees couldn't organise puja in some places in the affected areas," he said while explaining the reasons for the decrease in the number of puja mandaps across the country.

He said the government has beefed up security for Durga Puja and important officials, including the army and police chiefs, have assured them of all required assistance, which inspired them to celebrate the occasion in a festive manner.

Parishad General Secretary Santosh Sharma said Durga idols were vandalised in some 18 places across the country. Fifteen cases have been filed in connection with these incidents and 12 people have been arrested so far.

Durga puja celebrations will end with the immersion of the idols of the Goddess in the nearby rivers and water bodies across the country on 13 October.

Devi Durga this year will arrive on the earth riding on a palanquin, which means the world will suffer by epidemic and natural calamities, and return by riding on the elephant which confirms that the earth will be fertile and filled with crops.

Bd-Pratidin English/ Afsar Munna