E-Paper
Bengal govt to organise rally to thank UNESCO for Durga Puja heritage tag
UNESCO included “Durga Puja in Kolkata” on the “Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity” in December 2021
The West Bengal government will on Thursday organise a rally to thank UNESCO for giving a heritage tag to the Durga Puja in Kolkata. Chief minister Mamata Banerjee is expected to lead the rally and kickstart the puja celebrations at least a month in advance this year. A two-member team from the UN body is also scheduled to participate in the rally.
“On September 1, there would be a thanksgiving rally to express our gratitude to UNESCO, which gave the Durga Puja a heritage tag. The puja celebrations will start with that rally and end with a carnival on October 8,” Banerjee said earlier. Banerjee asked puja committees to make the rally colourful.
UNESCO included “Durga Puja in Kolkata” on the “Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity” in December 2021. Durga Puja is West Bengal’s biggest festival.
Over 1200 puja committees in Kolkata, Howrah, and Bidhannagar are expected to take part in the rally along with thousands of children, embassy officials, industrialists, and artists. Similar rallies have also been planned in all the districts. The participants will play flutes, sing, dance, and carry colourful umbrellas.
Around 37,000 community pujas are organised across the state every year. Of these, around 2,500 are held in Kolkata.
“The colourful rally will begin around 2pm near Jorasanko Thakurbari, the ancestral home of Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore in central Kolkata...cover around 4.5 km before a gala cultural programme will be organised,” said an official.
Durga Puja celebrations were muted over the last two years because of the Covid-19 pandemic. This year, they will be held in the first week of October. According to a 2018 study by the state government, the economic value of the industries that crop up around the Durga Puja is ₹32,377 crore.
