Durga Puja Granted Unesco Tag, Joins Odisha’s Chhau On Prestigious List

Kolkata: Durga Puja in Kolkata will now be officially recognized across the globe after the annual festival was inscribed on Unesco’s ‘Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity’.

“Durga Puja in Kolkata has just been inscribed on the #IntangibleHeritage list. Congratulations #India”, Unesco tweeted on Wednesday.

“Durga Puja is seen as the best instance of the public performance of religion and art, and as a thriving ground for collaborative artists and designers. The festival is characterised by large-scale installations and pavilions in urban areas as well as by traditional Bengali drumming and veneration of the goddess. During the event the divides of class, religion and ethnicities collapse as crowds of spectators walk around to admire the installations,” stated the Unesco website.

Durga Puja was ‘acknowledged’ during the 16th session of Unesco’s inter-governmental committee for safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage, being held virtually in Paris.

Durga Puja thus joins a number of other Indian festivals, including Chhau dance from Odisha and West Bengal, on the prestigious list.

The three-day Chhau festival is celebrated every year in Odisha before the Maha Visubha Sankranti, in mid-April, mainly in Mayurbhanj and Koraput districts. The festival is centred around the local dance, Mayurbhanj Chhau.

Durga Puja is celebrated in September-October, most notably in West Bengal, but it’s also a popular festival in some other parts of India including Odisha’s Cuttack.

Following are Indian festivals on Unesco’s Intangible Cultural Heritage list:

Durga Puja

Chhau dance

Kumbh Mela

Tradition of Vedic chanting

Ramlila

Kutiyattam, traditional performing art form in Kerala

Sanskrit theatre

Ramman, religious festival and ritual theatre of the Garhwal Himalayas

Kalbelia folk songs and dances of Rajasthan

Navroz, Parsi new year celebration.