Festival
5 Durga Puja Bhog Recipes to try this festive season
Durga puja is the biggest religious festival of the Bengali Hindu community. In Durga Puja, also known as Durgotsava, worshippers celebrate the victory of Goddess Durga in the battle over evil-powered Mahishasura. Bhog has always been a major part of Durga puja festival. The bhog represents a one-pot dish made with seasonal produce. Here are the top 5 Bhog recipes for Durga Puja. You can try these easy-to-prepare recipes at home to make your Durga Puja festival more special and enjoyable.
5 Easy Bhog Recipes for Durga Puja
Bhoger khichuri
Bhoger khichuri is an exemplary and inimitable moong dal khichdi that is prepared in puja and offered to the goddesses as Prasad.
Ingredients:
1 cup chal, 1 cup moong dal, 2 potatoes, 10 large Cauliflower florets, 2 Tomatoes, ½ cup green Peas, 3 green Chillies, 1/3 cup grated Coconut, 2 tablespoons Cashew nuts, 2 tablespoons Raisins, 1 ½ teaspoon Garam Masala powder, 1 tablespoon Ghee, 1 tablespoon Sugar, ½ teaspoon Turmeric powder, Salt to taste, Mustard oil for cooking, 7-8 cups of hot Water
For the Khichuri masala paste
3-inch Ginger, 1 green Chilli, ¾ tablespoon Cumin seeds, 1-inch Cinnamon stick, 2 Cardamoms, 3 tablespoons Water, 1 teaspoon Turmeric powder, 1 teaspoon Chilli powder
Instructions:
First, soak the fried dal for an hour. Then wash dal and chaal and strain the excess water. Put oil and cashew nuts into the pan and fry them till golden. Now add other ingredients except tomato chunks, masala paste, chal, and soaked moong dal. Then add the rest of the items with 4 cups of hot water and cook it on low flame for another 10 minutes. Switch off the flame and serve.
Read Yummy sweets for Durga Puja: Traditional Bengali desserts to try in this great religious festival
Bhoger Labra
It is an excellent mixed vegetable curry that is prepared in puja festivals and offered to the Goddesses as Prasad.
Ingredients:
2 Potatoes, 1 large sweet Potato, 3 Taro roots,300 grams Pumpkin, 1 large Radish,2 Medium Carrots, 1 unripe Banana, 1 large Ridge Gourd, 10 large florets of Cauliflower, 1 small Cabbage, 1½ cup Spinach, 100 grams broad Beans, 3-4 green Chillies, c¾ up Coconut, grated or paste
For tempering
½ tablespoon Panch Phoran, 2-3 Bay leaves, 3 dry red Chillies
For masala paste
1½ tablespoons Ginger paste, 3 teaspoons Turmeric powder, 2-3 teaspoons red Chilli powder, 1½ teaspoons Cumin powder, 3 tablespoons Water
Instructions:
First, peel the vegetables, wash them, and cut them into pieces. Now prepare the masala paste. Then heat ¼ cup mustard oil into the pan and add vegetable pieces and cook in medium flame for 5-6 minutes. Add other ingredients and cook on low flame for 10-15 minutes. Add 1 tablespoon bhaji masala, 1 tablespoon ghee into the pan, and the salt if required. Put the flame on high and cook it for a minute. Finally, labra are ready to serve.
Read Messages of Durga Puja Festival: What can we learn from Goddess Durga
Bhoger Rosogolla
Rosogolla is one of the most famous and fabulous desserts in Bengal. Durga puja's bogh is incomplete without Rosogolla.
Ingredients:
1 liter full-fat Milk, 1 Lemon, 1 teaspoon fine Rawa,2 Cardamoms, 2 cups Sugar, 4 cups of Water
Instructions:
First, prepare the chenna and hang the chenna for 30 minutes on a soft cloth. Then prepare the sugar syrup with water and sugar into a large pan. Make sure you add cardamoms and stir the syrup occasionally. Now, make the chenna balls. Cook the balls in sugar syrup by falling the balls into the boiling sugar syrup one by one immediately. Let them cook for 10 minutes and make cover the pan then. Let the Rasgullas cool down for an hour and serve.
Read Durga puja: A festival that unites Bangladesh!
Bhoger Mishti Doi
Mishti Doi is great when served with delicious Rasgulla. The Mishti Doi recipe is a perfect combination of yogurt and sugar in balanced proportions.
Ingredients
3 cup milk, 2 cup yogurt (curd), 6 tablespoon sugar, 1 green cardamom
Instructions:
First, take a saucepan and heat the milk. Keep the in a medium-high flame. Now add 2 tablespoons of sugar and keep stirring. You need to stir continuously so that the milk doesn't stick to the saucepan. Reduce the top half by heating and keep it aside.
Then to caramelize the sugar, take another pan and add 4 tablespoons of sugar and some water. When caramelizing is done, add in the warm milk and mix nicely. Next, turn off the oven and let it be at normal room temperature. Finally, add curd and mix well. Let the mixture be in a hot place for about 12 hours or more to freeze the misty doi.
Read Durga puja fervour grips Bangladesh
Bhoger Aloo posto
This is an easy-to-prepare vegetarian recipe. The ingredients are usually available in every Bengali kitchen.
Ingredients:
60g mustard oil, ¼ teaspoon nigella seeds, 2 pcs dried red chilies, 25g onions, 500g potatoes, 4 pcs green chilies, 12g salt, 8g sugar
Instructions:
First, peel the potatoes and the onions and cut them into pieces. Then put the onions slices into the heated mustard oil in a pan and fry them until to make they are pale in color. Drain the oil and set it aside for the onion.
Next, temper the oil with dried red chilies & nigella seeds. Add the potatoes. Fry for about 5 minutes or until the potatoes are soft. Finally, garnish with a hint of mustard oil, green chilies, and fried onions. Then serve.
Read Bagerhat's Durga Puja attraction: 151 idols in one mandap
Bottom Line
The Durga Puja festival lasts ten days and the last five days are celebrated remarkably. From the day of Mahalaya, every Hindu starts feeling exuberant and cheerful with lots of nostalgia. Submission of Bhog to Goddess Durga can make the celebration joyous and memorable. So far, we have discussed 5 popular Durga Puja Bhog recipes. These preparations can make the festival more ecstatic.
3-day national dance, drama festival begins at BSA
A three-day national dance and drama festival began at the Jatiya Natyashala auditorium of the Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy (BSA) Wednesday.
However, the last two days of the festival have been scheduled for July 24 and 25 at the same venue.
On the first day of the festival "Kobor" of Polli Kobi Jasimuddin, "Proshongo 47" of Saju Ahmed and "Chandallika" of nobel laureate poet Rabindranath Tagore were staged.
Read: StageOne Dhaka showcases 'The Odd Couple' at BSA
On July 24, four dramas "Hajar Bochorer Bangali," "Baramkhana," "Rupantorer Gan," and "Kunjo Shajao Go '' will be staged from 5pm.
The next day "Mayar Khela," "Shyema," "Meher Nigar," and "Rongila Nayer Majhi" will be performed.
Bangladesh celebrates Eid-ul-Azha amid religious fervour
Muslims in Bangladesh are on Sunday celebrating their second largest religious festival, Eid-ul-Azha, with prayers and sacrificing animals in the name of almighty Allah.
Eid congregations were held at mosques and maidans across the country where devotees offered prayers for world peace and harmony among communities.
The main Eid congregation was held at National Eidgah in the capital. Several congregations took place at National Baitul Mukurram Mosque.
President Abdul Hamid offered his Eid prayers at the Darbar Hall of Bangabhaban, his official residence along with officials and staff members.
The nationwide prayers were followed by slaughtering of sacrificial animals in the name of Allah.
The Eid-ul-Azha festival marks Prophet Ibrahim’s willingness to sacrifice his beloved son Ismael showing absolute love for Allah.
In their separate Eid messages President Abdul Hamid and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina urged the people to be imbibed with the spirit of self-sacrifice.
Read: Bangladesh to celebrate Eid-ul-Azha Sunday
ActionAid Bangladesh's 2-day festival on resilience, culture ends
ActionAid's two-day festival – organised to celebrate the resilience of communities of Bangladesh and the country's glorious heritage, culture, and traditions – ended Friday in Dhaka.
The event "Festival of Resilience: People, Planet and Possibilities" aimed to encourage celebration and participation among communities in recognition of their stories of resilience.
For decades, the people of Bangladesh have faced countless challenges, such as climate and human-induced disasters, inequalities, economic instability, refugee crisis and pandemic. But every time, the mass bounced back with the power of resilience and survived with renewed vigour.
Read: ActionAid to celebrate Bangladeshi resilience, cultural heritage
A very recent example would be the last two years, during the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic, when the collective effort of the people of this country helped communities stay hopeful and agile.
To celebrate the innate quality and resilience of people, ActionAid Bangladesh organised the festival. Through a wide and immersive range of activities, the festival helped celebrate the people, their strength, joy, and solidarity.
Key attractions of the opening day included a performance by Happy Home girls; the inauguration of exhibition and kiosks; opening dialogue on the "Multi-dimensional perspective of resilience."
ActionAid Bangladesh's 2-day festival on resilience, culture begins
To celebrate the resilience of communities of Bangladesh and the country's glorious heritage, culture, and traditions, ActionAid Bangladesh (AAB) has organised a two-day festival.
The event "Festival of Resilience: People, Planet and Possibilities" aims to encourage celebration and participation among communities in recognition of their stories of resilience.
The festival, which started Thursday in Dhaka's Gulshan 2, will end Friday.
For decades, the people of Bangladesh have faced countless challenges, such as climate and human-induced disasters, inequalities, economic instability, refugee crisis and pandemic. But every time, the mass bounced back with the power of resilience and survived with renewed vigour.
A very recent example would be the last two years, during the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic, when the collective effort of the people of this country helped communities to stay hopeful and agile, despite all the uncertainties and despair.
This innate quality and resilience of people are worth celebrating. So, ActionAid Bangladesh is organising this festival. Through a wide and immersive range of activities, the festival will help celebrate the people, their strength, joy, and solidarity.
Key attractions of the opening day included a performance by Happy Home girls; the inauguration of exhibition and kiosks; opening dialogue on the "Multi-dimensional perspective of resilience."
There was also a special "She-tales," segment, involving women leaders from the community who shared their tales of courage and resilience, and a cultural performance by the AAB Band.
On the last day of the event, there will be a flash mob by the young participants of the Activista Network of ActionAid Bangladesh.
There will also be three "Human Book Café" sessions with distinguished speakers – Imtiaz Ahmed, professor of international relations and director of Centre for Genocide Studies, University of Dhaka; Naveed Mahbub, comedian and columnist; Tania Wahab, entrepreneur, Afsan Chowdhury, journalist and researcher, Shameem Akhtar, filmmaker and media activist, and Afzal Hossain, popular actor and director.
"The knack for survival through endurance and overcoming obstacles is what makes us, as a nation, unique and commendable. At ActionAid, we felt that it was high time we celebrated this innate resilience of people – and therefore, came up with the idea of this Festival of Resilience," Farah Kabir, country director of ActionAid Bangladesh, said.
"Through this two-day event, we are going to promote the diversity of the country's culture, an attempt to learn the grassroots' resilience mechanisms, explore opportunities for potential partnerships and highlight the work of ActionAid Bangladesh for building resilience to increase awareness."
Pahela Falgun, Valentine’s Day bring back joy in Dhaka streets
Dhaka has worn a colorful look as festival-loving Bangladeshi people are celebrating the first day of the most anticipated season Basanta (Spring) and globally celebrated Valentine's Day on Monday, all amid the pandemic.
Over the past couple of years, people, particularly in Bangladesh, had become used to celebrating a two-day festivity in February, with the 13th being the day of Pohela Falgun and the 14th as Valentine’s Day. However, both the days are being celebrated on February 14, due to the changes made in the Bengali calendar.
Falgun is the eleventh month in the Bengali calendar and the first month of the season, Spring, the king of all the six seasons that brings back warm sunshine, budding flowers and dancing of birds.
Keeping pace with the rest of the world, Bangladeshis also celebrate Valentine's Day with their beloved ones. Valentine's Day, also called Saint Valentine's Day or the Feast of Saint Valentine, is an ancient Roman tradition which has been celebrated in European countries for ages.
These days it is widely celebrated in Asia, including Bangladesh, thanks to its fast globalisation.
Read: Spending Romantic Valentine’s Day at Home? Get Delectable Lunch, Dinner Ideas
3-day long dance festival begins at BSA Thursday
A 3-day dance festival with participation of 75 dance troops will begin on Thursday at Jatiya Natyashala in Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy (BSA).
The dance festival will be inaugurated at 4 pm by State Minister for Cultural Affairs KM Khalid as the chief guest and President of Bangladesh Nrityashilpi Sangstha Minu Haque as special guest.
READ: Singer Asif Akbar indicted in ICT case
Director General of BSA Liaquat Ali Lucky briefed reporters about the festival on Wednesday.
He said, through this event BSA has been able to patronize 75 dance troops.
Of the troops, 50 have been provided with financial assistance of TK 1 lakh and remaining 25 troops with TK 80,000 each.
READ: Kylie Jenner becomes first woman with 300 million Instagram followers
Shuddhasangeet Utsab is back!
After a long Covid-induced hiatus, leading cultural organisation Chhayanaut will welcome back live audiences to its Dhanmondi auditorium with its traditional music festival on Thursday.
The two-day festival -- Shuddhasangeet Utsab 1428 -- will be held at the auditorium of Chhayanaut Sangskriti Bhaban in the capital's Dhanmondi area. This year's festival has been dedicated to Chhayanaut Sangeet Bidyayatan teachers, Madan Gopal Das and Satindranath Halder.
Read: Chhayanaut pays tribute to Rabindra Sangeet legend Mita Haque
The festival is set to welcome the listeners at 4.30 pm on Thursday. Noted music maestroes and singers, including Khairul Anam Shakil, Rezoan Ali, Shekhar Mandal and Abhijit Kundu, will perform at the festival on Thursday till 10.30 pm.
On Friday, the first session of the concluding day's programme will begin at 9 am and continue till 12 pm, which will feature the performances of Alauddin Miah, Bijan Chandra Mistry and more.
The second and concluding session will be held from 4.30 pm till 10.30 pm, featuring Asit Dey, Arpita Chakrabarti and others.
Read: Chhayanaut cancels Pahela Baishakh festivities at Ramna, goes back to virtual celebration with BTV
Chhayanaut restricted its all in-house live events back in early 2020 when Covid-19 first hit Bangladesh. It has been broadcasting different cultural programmes on its Facebook group and YouTube channel since then.
Korea Film and Tourism Festival 2021 starts in Dhaka on Nov 24
The annual Korean Film and Tourism Festival 2021, organised by the Embassy of the Republic of Korea in Bangladesh, will take place at the Bangladesh National Museum in Dhaka during November 24-26.
The three-day film festival will begin on November 24 at 5pm with the premiere of the popular Korean film "Parasite" – the first non-English language film to win the best picture award in the 92-year history of the Academy Awards in 2019.
State Minister for Cultural Affairs KM Khalid will join the inauguration ceremony as the chief guest. The programme will also feature K-pop performances by award-winning Bangladesh youngsters.
Also read: Hong Kong Asian Film Festival: 'Rehana Maryam Noor' bags New Talent Award
Houston leaders seek clues for concert mishap that killed 8
Authorities said they would watch video, interview witnesses and review concert protocols to determine how eight people died at a Houston music festival when fans suddenly surged toward the stage to watch rapper Travis Scott.
City officials said Saturday they were in the early stages of investigating the pandemonium that unfolded Friday evening at Astroworld, a sold-out, two-day event in NRG Park with an estimated 50,000 people in attendance. One attendee said that as a timer clicked down to the start of Scott’s performance, the crowd pushed forward.
“As soon as he jumped out on the stage, it was like an energy took over and everything went haywire,” concertgoer Niaara Goods said. “All of a sudden, your ribs are being crushed. You have someone’s arm in your neck. You’re trying to breathe, but you can’t.”
Read: Pre-poll violence: 4 killed, 15 injured in Narsingdi
Goods said she was so desperate to get out that she bit a man on the shoulder to get him to move.
The dead ranged in age from 14 to 27, and 13 people were still hospitalized Saturday, Mayor Sylvester Turner said. He called the disaster “a tragedy on many different levels” and said it was too early to draw conclusions about what went wrong. Dozens were injured.
“It may well be that this tragedy is the result of unpredictable events, of circumstances coming together that couldn’t possibly have been avoided,” said Judge Lina Hidalgo, Harris County’s top elected official. “But until we determine that, I will ask the tough questions.”
Experts who have studied deaths caused by crowd surges say they are often a result of density — too many people packed into a small space. The crowd is often running either away from a perceived threat or toward something they want, such as a performer, before hitting a barrier.
G. Keith Still, a visiting professor of crowd science at the United Kingdom’s University of Suffolk, has testified as an expert witness in court cases involving crowds. He said he usually does not look at eyewitness reports in the early stages of analyzing an incident because emotions can cloud the picture, and witnesses can see only what’s immediately around them.
Based on fire codes, the venue could have held 200,000 people, but city officials limited the attendance to 50,000, Houston Fire Chief Samuel Peña said.
“It was the crowd control at the point of the stage that was the issue, especially as the crowd began to surge toward the stage,” Peña said.
The deaths called to mind a 1979 concert by the Who where 11 people died as thousands of fans tried to get into Cincinnati’s Riverfront Coliseum. Other past crowd catastrophes include the deaths of 97 people in an overcrowded Hillsborough Stadium in 1989 in Sheffield, England, and numerous disasters connected with the annual hajj in Saudi Arabia.
Read: US mandates vaccines or tests for big companies by Jan. 4
People in the Houston crowd reported lots of pushing and shoving during the performances leading up to Scott’s set.
Then when Scott took the stage, the crowd seemed to rush to the front, trying to get closer to the stage, said Nick Johnson, a high school senior from the Houston suburb of Friendswood who was at the concert.
“Everyone was passing out around you, and everyone was trying to help each other. But you just couldn’t move. You couldn’t do anything. You can’t even pick your arms up,” Johnson said. “It just got worse and worse.”
Johnson said fans started to crush each other, and people started screaming. He said it felt like 100 degrees in the crowd.
Scott seemed to be aware that something was going on in the crowd, but he might not have understood the severity of the situation, Johnson said. A social media posting shows fans who appear to be dozens of rows from the stage chanting “stop the show” while Scott is performing. Another post shows two fans climbing a ladder aboard a platform and asking a cameraman to do something.
On video posted to social media, Scott could be seen stopping the concert at one point and asking for aid for someone in the audience: “Security, somebody help real quick.”
In a tweet posted Saturday, Scott said he was “absolutely devastated by what took place last night.” He pledged to work “together with the Houston community to heal and support the families in need.”
Amy Harris, a freelance photographer for The Associated Press, described an “aggressive” crowd atmosphere throughout the day because of the way fans were behaving — pushing and rushing the stage barricades and prohibited VIP and admission areas.
“It was definitely the most chaotic festival environment that I’ve been in,” Harris said. “I felt uneasy all day.”
Houston Police Chief Troy Finner said his department noticed attendees “going down” at 9:30 p.m. and immediately notified concert organizers. The event was called off 40 minutes later after discussions that included the fire department and officials with NRG Park.
Finner defended the amount of time it took for the event to be canceled.
“You cannot just close when you’ve got 50,000 — over 50,000 — individuals, OK?” Finner said. “We have to worry about rioting — riots — when you have a group that’s that young.”
At one point, Gerardo Abad-Garcia was pressed so tightly into the crowd that he could not move his arms off his chest. During the performance that came before Scott’s, he started getting concerned for his safety.
“I just couldn’t breathe. I was being compressed,” he said. A security guard helped him and others climb a fence and get out.
He described the crowd during Scott’s set as a wave that was “going forward and backward.” He said some people tried to help those who were passed out on the ground, while other concertgoers seemed to ignore them and continued watching the show.
Some audience members said barricades erected near the stage and to separate different sections of ticket holders prevented fans from escaping.
Billy Nasser described an area created by a stage barricade as a closet that people were thrown into and the door was shut. Joshua Robinson said the barricades created an area that “was just way too small and compact” for the number of people there.
Part of the investigation will include reviewing how the area around the stage was designed, the fire chief said.
Authorities did not disclose the causes of death, and the dead were not immediately identified.
The police chief said authorities were investigating reports of suspicious activity in the crowd, including a security officer who told police that he felt a prick in his neck during the chaos and lost consciousness while being examined by first responders. He was revived by the opioid antidote Narcan.
Scott, one of music’s biggest young stars, founded the Astroworld Festival in 2018. The 29-year-old Houston native has been nominated for eight Grammy Awards. He has a 3-year-old daughter with Kylie Jenner, who announced in September that she’s pregnant with their second child.
Drake joined Scott on-stage at the concert, which was livestreamed by Apple Music.