Saraswati Pujo meets the world’s Valentine’s Day
If you were to visit the eastern Indian city of Kolkata on Valentine’s Day this year, you are likely to see groups of friends and couples roaming the streets and packing schools and colleges, malls, and landmarks of the city, all dressed to the teeth in bright yellows and greens and all colors spring. The fragrance of love and marigolds pervade the air, as throngs of youth gather to pray to the Goddess of learning and wisdom, Saraswati, just as enthusiastically as they celebrate love. Over the past several decades, Saraswati Puja, or Pujo as we call it, is a quintessentially Bengali celebration that has evolved into Bengal’s own Valentine’s Day. This year is special, as the Pujo will be observed on February 14, the Western world’s Valentine’s Day.
Spring, pujo, and love are in the air
Saraswati Pujo, a celebration dedicated to the Goddess of wisdom, knowledge, and the arts, is widely celebrated across India, particularly in Bengal, and by Bengali communities everywhere. It is typically observed on the fifth day of the Hindu month of Magha, or on Vasant Panchami (January -February), marking the onset of spring.
In Bengal, Saraswati Pujo is organized at educational institutions, homes, and public spaces like community halls or pandals. Schools and colleges adorn idols of the Goddess, beautifully decked with flowers and ornaments. Although this puja is not typically a sarbojanin or community celebration like Durga Pujo, some neighborhoods, and housing societies organise it with the aid of door-to-door crowdfunding or chaanda.
Many cultural programs, including music, dance performances, and poetry recitations, are organized to honor Ma Saraswati. In homes, families set up small altars or mandaps, adorned with Saraswati idols, books, and musical instruments.
Childhood memories of culture and bhog
My earliest Saraswati Pujo memories go back to when I was about seven years old. I decided to conduct a small ceremony at home, much to my parent’s surprise. I had my own, small white idol of Goddess Saraswati, and remember placing flowers my father had bought from the local market and fruits that my mother had cut, in front of her. I wore a saree that belonged to my mother, performed an aarti with incense sticks, and sought blessings from the Goddess.
Growing up, Saraswati Pujo meant a family get-together at my paternal aunt’s Montessori school. She would organise an elaborate event where a pundit would conduct the rituals and all her students and their families would be invited. Guests would take their seats at the classroom benches, one batch at a time, to eat lunch – the delicious bhog of khichuri, labra and payesh – served to them. It always used to be a fun-filled day as we cousins could meet and play together.
I also remember the Saraswati Pujo cultural event organized by the library near my house. The library is run by local senior citizens; on the Sunday following Saraswati Pujo, several competitions would be conducted, including drawing contests, poetry recitations, costume (fancy dress )competitions, and fun games. Many of us kids participated in these contests. Entire bylanes would be blocked for children to sit and draw. When I grew older, I used to sit on my balcony and watch as young kids gathered to celebrate and participate in the events.
The first whiff of love in the Pujo air…
For the longest time, I did not associate Saraswati Pujo with the celebration of love, at least not the Valentine’s Day kind. I attended a co-ed school with a strict environment patrolled by ever-vigilant teachers, so nobody dared to indulge in any PDA.
As I grew up, I would often hear about and observe young college-going students – we lived close to a culturally vibrant university campus – celebrate this day as more than a day spent at the altar of the Goddess of Knowledge. From my balcony, I watched students walk by, dressed in their brightest attire, many of them couples holding hands. Perhaps it was then that the idea of Saraswati Pujo doubling up as an unofficial Valentine’s Day came to mind. Only after I began college did I realize how significant this day was for Bengali youth.
How did love find its way to wisdom?
So how, when, and why did Bengalis merge Pujo with romance? There isn’t a clear start date for this phenomenon, but there were breadcrumbs all along.
Much of Rabindranath Tagore’s poetry and songs associates spring with love. Unsurprisingly, Bengalis tend to romanticize the spring season with romance. Being the symbolic marker of the onset of spring, Saraswati Pujo also signalled the season of love.
Hemantika Mukherjee, 21, a Master’s student like me, agrees that it’s the time of year that is ideal for romance. Vasant Panchami marks the onset of spring, when neither winter chills nor summer sultriness overpowers us.
My father, a rooted Bengali, and life-long Kolkatan, says that while the conflation of the western Valentine’s Day and Bengali Saraswati Pujo is a more recent phenomenon, the practice of celebrating love on the day of the Pujo is old.
“Bengali adolescents were always told “porte bosh!” (sit and study!),” he recalls. “Saraswati Pujo came as a relief from the daily grind, as all books were placed at the devi’s feet – a no-study-all-fun day! And since Saraswati Pujo is widely celebrated by educational institutions, it presents a perfect excuse for young boys and girls to dress up and attend the celebrations — away from their parents’ prying eyes — where their love interests would surely show up.”
According to my father, Saraswati Pujo came to be called Bengal’s Valentine’s Day much later, during the era of globalization in the 1990s.
I wondered if my father, too, looked forward to this day in his teenage years!
In more conservative times, where co-ed schools and colleges were less common, Saraswati Pujo served as a license for boys and girls to mingle, a break from a gender-defined upbringing. Even though we have moved toward a more gender-inclusive society, this day continues to upend gender-based restrictions. At my university, for example, student dorms, or hostels, are segregated by gender at all times. However, last year on Saraswati Pujo, some of us girls visited the boys’ hostel to enjoy the traditional bhog. No warden stopped us!
Where Bengalis go, pujo and love must follow
This trend is not limited to Kolkata, especially among Bengali communities across the country. Sahasika Zaman, 21, a master’s student from Cooch Behar, a northern city in West Bengal, says that Saraswati Pujo is hugely popular among youth in her hometown. Cooch Behar and Kolkata are culturally similar she says, so finding young lovebirds looking forward to Saraswati Pujo is not unusual.
Souvik Pal, 21, a BTech student in Bhubaneswar, Odisha, reports that Odia youth in his college enthusiastically participate in Saraswati Pujo, eagerly donning bright yellow clothes and helping with the puja pandal. However, it’s usually the Bengali students who look forward to Saraswati Pujo in anticipation of spending a memorable day with their significant others.
Like so many cultural practices, Bengali’s Valentine’s Day has become a part of our collective memory. No matter how old I get, I am sure I will recall Saraswati Pujo with child-like excitement, fond memories washing over. As society transforms and progresses, much changes with time; but some traditions continue to hold a distinct place in its people’s hearts. For Bengalis, it is this day.
