The festival for worshiping Devi Saraswati, Goddess of literature and culture of the Hindu community, performed at houses of the community and different educational institutions from Friday noon to Saturday noon.
The Puja celebrated every year on ‘Vasant Panchami’, the birth-day of Goddess Saraswati and fifth day of the bright fortnight of the month of Magh.
Hindu devotees, especially students and youths, celebrated the Saraswati Puja in different educational institutions and temples and houses setting up colorful mandaps and placing the idol of the goddess with different types of sweet meets, fruits and other items and articles of handicrafts.
On this occasion most of the educational institutions of the city constructing Puja Mandop placed the books and educational items on the foot of the idol of Saraswati to get her blessing in educational life.
Religious rituals, special prayer, Aroti, discussion meeting, cultural functions also held on this occasion.
Prices and demands of sweet meats especially sweet curds and fruits especially sugar cane and jujube also increased on this occasion.
Saraswati, derived from the lost Vedic River Saraswati, one of the major water causeways in northwest India navigable in the third and fourth millennium BC and the source of her profound connection to fluidity in any aspect (water, speech, thought, etc.).
She is the Hindu goddess possesses all the learning of the Vedas, scriptures, dancing, musical power and poetry, knowledge, speech (Vac), revealed language and writing and represents the union of power and intelligence from which organized creation arises.
Saraswati is also the symbols of wisdom, fortune, intelligence, nourishment, brilliance, contentment, splendour and devotion, said Sushanta Ghosh, fine art activist of Charukala Barisal in the city.
Sylhet Correspondent adds: The Hindu community today celebrated the Saraswati Puja with traditional gaiety and spirit of pursuit of art and knowledge everywhere in Sylhet division.
Puja mandaps, mandirs and a large number of educational institutions have been colourfully decorated as hundreds of devotees seek blessings since morning from the `Devi Saraswati’, the Goddess of knowledge.
The devotees, especially the students attired in colourful dresses, offered special prayers and observed fasting as per the ritual of the festival to seek knowledge and talent from the Goddess Saraswati.
In Sylhet metropolis, a large number of images of Goddess Saraswati, symbolizing a graceful woman riding on a swan, were erected at different puja mandaps, mandirs and educational institutions.
Particularly, Saraswati Puja was celebrated at MC Collage,
SUST, Leading, SIU, Northest University, Polytechnic Institute side by side with different educational institutions and many other points and open places in the city.
The celebration also included offering of Devi Aradhona, Pushpanjoli,
`archanas’, `anjolis’, `aratis’, distribution of `Prashad’, `Arati
Competitions’, cultural functions and staging of drama.
