About Durga Puja in Orissa :
Durga Puja epitomizes the ritual of good over evil. The festival is dedicated to Goddess Durga who is considered as a goddess of power. During the festival time the streets are crowded with people as devotees gather over the Puja Mandaps for worship and prayers. On the last day of the Durga Puja, the huge structures and images of Goddess Durga are taken out in a procession and finally submerged in the holy river of Kathajodi. The ceremony continues for three days with the immersion ceremony following on the fourth day. The images are taken in a huge procession to the nearest river or tank and are immersed there with loud music being played in the background.
Youth bows down to the elders after this to seek blessings and be blessed with power like the goddess.Durga Puja is a special time for women who look forward to this auspicious occasion to buy clothes for themselves and their family. They express their joy by partaking in the Sindoor Utsav where the married ladies smear the parting of the goddess's hair with vermilion and again smear each other's hair parting with vermilions.Girls adorn the floor with alpana designs that are made with rice flour paste. They see this autumn festival as the annual home coming of Durga, the married daughter returning home to her parents from her husband's house for a period of four days.Generally, the idol of Durga is flanked by the idols of Lakshmi, Saraswati, Kartik and Ganesh, all of whom are believed to be her children. The goddess sits atop a lion, which is her vahan. The favourite tableau is of her stabbing Asura, the demon. It is symbolic of the victory that she had achieved for the gods over the demons.