Durga Puja, also called Durgotsava and Navaratri, is an annual Hindu or Bengali Hindu festival in the Indian subcontinent that reveres the goddess Durga.It is observed in the Hindu calendar month of Ashvin, typically September or October of the Gregorian calendar. A multi-day festival that features elaborate temple and stage decorations (pandals), scripture recitation, performance arts, revelry and processions, Durga Puja is particularly observed by Hindus in eastern and northeastern states of India, in Bangladesh and in Nepal where it is called Dashain.  It is a major festival in the Shaktism tradition of Hinduism across India and Shakta Hindu diaspora.

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Durga Puja festival marks the battle of goddess Durga with the shape-shifting, deceptive and powerful buffalo demon Mahishasura, and her emerging victorious. Thus, the festival epitomises the victory of Good over Evil, but it also is in part a harvest festival that marks goddess as the motherly power behind all of life and creation.The Durga Puja festival dates coincide with Vijayadashami (Dussehra) observed by other traditions of Hinduism, where the Ram Lila is enacted, victory of Rama is marked and effigies of demon Ravana are burnt instead.

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The festival is an old tradition of Hinduism, though it is unclear how and in which century the festival began. Surviving manuscripts from the 14th century provide guidelines for Durga puja, while historical records suggest royalty and wealthy families were sponsoring major Durga puja public festivities since at least the 16th century. The prominence of Durga Puja increased during the British Raj in its provinces of Bengal and Assam. Durga Puja has been a ten-day festival,of which the last five are typically special and an annual holiday in regions such as West Bengal and Tripura where it is particularly popular. In the contemporary era, the importance of Durga Puja is as much as a social festival as a religious one wherever it is observed.

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