Bengali heritage festival Durga Puja comes to London, Ont.
CBC
London's Bengali community brought an annual Hindu festival to the city for the first time ever this weekend, where attendees enjoyed a mix of tradition and faith through food, art, music, dancing, and lots of colours.
Nearly 200 families attended the Durga Puja hosted by the Utsav Bengali Association of London Ontario at Saint André Bessette Catholic Secondary School to welcome the presence of the Hindu goddess Durga in their homes.
The event, open to Londoners of all cultures and faiths, started with prayers and included a variety of food and clothing vendors, before it ended with ceremonial dancing circles. It typically goes on for five days in India, but organizers squeezed the festivities into two days for more people to attend.
In 2021, it was designated as a UNESCO heritage festival and is considered a prequel to Diwali, said the association's president Pratyay Bose. Here are some photos of the festival: