Wrapping up my posts from our time in Malaysia has taken me a while, so quite a bit has happened back in Chittagong in the meantime. First up? Durga Puja! I didn’t know much about the holiday before it happened, but since then I’ve learned that it’s a pretty huge deal, especially in Bangladesh! Check out the link above or wikipedia for more information on the holiday itself. The super-CliffsNotes version is that it’s a Hindu festival celebrating the goddess Durga who just so happens to be a total badass.
That’s pretty much all we (Catie, Denise, and I) knew about the holiday going in… We knew that there was a good deal of celebrating going on at Hindu temples around the city, but we didn’t really know what, and we certainly didn’t know where. So in a moment of sheer brilliance which I think can be attributed to my female companions, we decided to just walk outside in the street, stop a CNG driver, and say “Durga Puja?”. This would basically be the equivalent of stopping a cab in New York City on December 24 and saying nothing but “Christmas?”. To be honest I think it would be a fun project to do just that on all the major holidays, and see what happens and where they take you each time. I would love to try “Easter?” or maybe “Thanksgiving?”. In any case, amazingly our tactic worked, because the CNG driver laughed and simply told us to get in. So we did, having absolutely no clue where we might end up.
Granted, our driver easily could have taken us to the middle of nowhere and left us for dead, but turns out he knew what he was doing and treated us well. He drove us right to a big temple outside of which were hundreds of people dressed up in nice clothes and celebrating. Luck was certainly on our side as the minute we got out of our CNG, excited but completely bewildered, we heard a girl’s voice behind us saying “Ms. Catie?”. Turns out it was three students from AUW who were out celebrating the holiday, one of whom (named Mow) had actually grown up in Chittagong as well. She told us that people spend the night going from temple to temple visiting the various pujas, dancing, and making offerings to Durga and asking her for things. Mow generously offered for us to tag along with her and her friends and we happily accepted.
And thus the pandemonium began… This was my first direct experience with Hinduism, and wow what a way to start! Mow took us to what she said was the most famous temple celebrating Durga Puja in all of Chittagong. I should point out that although only about 12% of Bangladesh is Hindu, the holiday of Durga Puja has transcended religious boundaries and plenty of Muslims join in the celebration as well. As a result there were a lot of people there, and about 95% of those people were extremely excited to see me, a white boy, there with them. I think I shook more hands that night than I have in my entire life combined. Everyone wanted to know my name and my country and why I was in Bangladesh and what on earth I was doing at Durga Puja (although we rarely had the common language ability to get much farther than the first two questions). I was definitely the local celebrity.
The sheer number of people was certainly mind-blowing, but the event itself was even more out of this (and by this I mean my) world. As my post title suggests, I was quite confused about whether I was at a religious festival or a raging dance club. There were strobe lights mixed with multicolored spotlights, blaring techno music with live drums, and men, women, and children dancing like crazy all over the place. I am starting to feel like maybe Hinduism is the way to go!
My experience was intensified even further by the fact that men and women are separated inside the pujas (where all the real dancing and celebration occurs) so I was alone for most of the night as all of my companions were girls. Admittedly this freaked me out a bit at the beginning, but I followed Catie’s advice “just do whatever everyone else does!” and met a few new friends along the way that were very friendly and guided me along. Mostly I just stood wide-eyed, enjoyed the music, and tried to take some photos amidst the chaos. It was a great night and I’m so glad we just went for it (and happened to find the right CNG driver)!
Photos taken in Chittagong, Bangladesh on September 27, 2009.
