DirectRooms.com – Kolkata holds mass celebrations to honour the goddess Durga from 2 to 6 October 20

The festival is a celebration of the Goddess Durga and the legend of how she defeated the evil demon Mahishasura. Durga Puja is Kolkata’s most important religious festival and people all over the city will be honouring the goddess.

Festivities typically involve people decorating their homes and each household pays homage to a statue of Durga. Rituals are performed to draw the spirit of the deity into the statues and people will continually come to pray in front of the sculptures while offerings of fruit and flowers are laid at her feet.

The festival this year will run from 2nd to 6th October 2011 and on the second day it’s common to see branches being tied together and then dipped in water taken from the Ganges. The branches will have come from nine different trees and again are offered up to be worshipped. On the 6th the statues themselves are taken down to the Ganges and immersed in the sacred water.

Throughout the event any visitors staying at Kolkata City Centre hotels can see lively theatrical displays often depicting the famous battle between the goddess and demon.

Lek Boonlert, marketing head at DirectRooms.com commented: "Although celebrated throughout India, Kolkata is one of the main destinations for the festival. Hotels will therefore be getting fully booked and to get a vacancy people will need to book early."

###

About DirectRooms

DirectRooms is an independent discount hotel reservations company based in Asia. Established and online since 2000 with over 55,000 hotels worldwide.