Durga Puja will be celebrated faraway in Glasgow, UK and San Francisco, USA with traditional Bengali rituals and customs. Glasgow Durga Puja, in its 44th year, is the oldest in Scotland and the only one in the city. For the last three years, it is being held in Coats Paisley, a former Gothic revival church.
Since 2017, Sharodotsav has been an integral part of Agomoni, a philanthropic organization celebrating the diverse Indian culture and providing a platform for performing arts in the San Francisco Bay Area, California.
Agomoni celebrates the festival with a quintessential Durga Puja ensemble: Kumartuli protima, theme pandal, bodhon, anjali, pujo bhog, dhunuchi naach, cultural programmes, boron and sindoor daan.
A dedicated group of volunteers manage planning, coordination and execution of serving more than 600 members and a footfall of over 5,000 pandal visitors.
“Social initiatives are a huge part of Agomoni’s focus and we work closely with Mukti, a non-profit organization based in the Sundarbans, to help transform livelihood and provide educational support to thousands of under-privileged residents,” said a member.
This year, Agomoni started a social initiative focused on women, called ‘Utsavi’, to foster camaraderie, craft and community.
The venue of the Durga Puja at Glasgow is inside the Thomas Coats Memorial Baptist Church that has been a prominent feature of the Paisley skyline for over 100 years. With its crown steeple rising to 200 ft, the interiors of the church are as majestic as the exteriors.
“We order fiberglass idols from Kumortuli, Kolkata, every few years and preserve them. Our priest is Arunava Banerjee, a software engineer, ” said Gautam Patra, chairman of the puja committee that is part of the Bangiya Sanskritik Parishad.
“We, the Bengalis in Glasgow, believe that Durga Maa would not mind the presence of other religious symbols in her place of worship,” said techie Amit Deb, general secretary of the committee.
Joint secretary Arnab Purakayestha, a techie, said, “We are proud of our beautiful venue and the fact that we are using the church to experience and celebrate the divine in our lives.”
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