Tag: Durga Puja

shuktara - Vishwakarma Puja

Holiday Season

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Vishwakarma Puja – 17th September

As the holiday season in the West begins, in India the festival season began with Vishwakarma Puja back in September. Vishwakarma Puja was held in the Shuktara Cakes Bakery space which is now on the ground floor of Anna Bari.

  • Bapi
  • Raju
  • Raju, Sunil & Bapi

Durga Puja – October

Durga Puja is the main festival, but due to Coronavirus restrictions the only outings made were by the Shuktara Cakes team who were selling patisserie at a local Puja.

Diwali / Kali Puja – 4th November

  • Sunil
  • Lali

Jagadhatri Puja – 12th – 13th November

Following Durga Puja we celebrated Diwali and Kali Puja and ended our festivities with Jagadhatri Puja held on the 12th and 13th of November outside Anna Bari, where everyone from both homes attended and the local residents enjoyed socialising with our young people and staff.

shuktara homes for young people with disabilities

Durga Puja – visiting the pandals

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If you follow shuktara you know that Durga Puja is the biggest festival of the year in Kolkata. All over the city elaborate handmade pandals are created to house clay statues of the goddess Durga and her family who come down once a year from their heavenly abode for a five day holiday.

This year the young people of shuktara visited the pandals on the 1st day of Pujas which was Shashti and 3rd day which was Ashtami. Everyone dressed up in their new clothes, piled in the cars and went pandal-hopping.

(thank you Raegan Hodge for all the fabulous photos!)

shuktara home for young adults with disability - Pappu, Pinku and Rajesh at a Durga Puja pandal

Enjoying Durga Puja

Posted on by shuktara

Durga Puja is one of the most famous and important festivals in West Bengal. This ten-day Hindu festival celebrates the victory of goddess Durga over the evil buffalo demon Mahishasura.

This is a time for everyone, no matter what religion, to dress up in new clothes and go out with family and friends to enjoy the celebration. The young people at shuktara eagerly await this holiday. They love to go out visiting the magnificent pandals that house the Durga sculptures, complete with her lion mount and her ten arms wielding ten weapons.

The boys and girls go out together in two big vehicles over two days. The older boys go out again later on both those nights. This means that Sunil, who absolutely loves the Pujas, gets to go out four times!

shuktara 2015 Durga Puja - Sunil

Celebrate Durga Puja 2015 with shuktara!

Posted on by shuktara
Durga Puja is the biggest and most extravagant festival in Kolkata. For weeks everyone watches the pandals (temporary, fabricated structures) being slowly constructed. The one aspect common to all of them is a huge elaborate sculpture of the Hindu goddess Durga. During this Puja everyone at shuktara goes "pandal hopping" to view and enjoy the creative depictions of the goddess and her temporary home.

Sunil is never happier than when there is puja going on – and the biggest and best puja of all is DURGA PUJA!

Ashok
Pappu and Ashok
Pappu with Bapi, Ipshita and Rajesh
Ashok and friends
Lali with Minudi and Tamina
Prity
Ramesh, Sunil and Tamina with two of our mashis - Minu and Sabita
Ashok
Ramesh
Ashok
Rajesh
Lali