More than Durga Puja being just a festival, it is a celebration of life, love and unity and while Durga Puja is celebrated on a massive scale in West Bengal the entire world takes part too in welcoming the Goddess to the mortal plains in any way that they can. This year Ignite e.V., a Bengali association in Berlin too celebrated all five days with all the rituals, ceremonies and cultural programmes.
“We retain the essence of Durga Puja by following the customs and rituals religiously. We perform the Puja in a similar fashion as we would do back In Kolkata. Our Durga Puja is a fusion of “Sabekiana” with “modern outlook” steer headed by our vision to spread the Indian culture in Berlin,” says Abhijit Saha president of Ignite e.V.
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While the idol had been sourced from Kumortuli in Kolkata and sent all the way to Berlin in a ship, the association will be reusing the idol this year too because that is sustainable and is a practice that is more environmental friendly in nature.
On all five days of the puja, the team ensures that they have a special menu in place- “Indian restaurant owners have come forward to help us in this endeavour. We have an Indian menu and also Special Bengali menus like cholar dal with coconut.”
Talking about how Ignite e.V. initiated the first community Durga Puja in Berlin, Arijit Patra, a member of the team says, “Ignite eV. was formed in 2020 with the vision of practising Indian culture and helping Indians who come to Germany. We hosted our 1st Durga Puja in 2021, wherein around 70 like-minded Indians came together and started the process later joined by 72 volunteers to execute the overall plan.”
He further added, “This year we have 102 members and 40 volunteers who are working in a structured manner in different groups such as decorations, puja rituals, communication, media, marketing, food distribution to make the biggest Durga Puja of Berlin a success story.”
