Hi friends of Ayantika! My name is Swarnali and I am so honored to be guest posting on Bong's Belleza. I have been a big fan of Ayantika's blog for quite sometime now and am so thrilled to write for her.

As you must have noticed, Ayantika has been doing a series of posts here on her blog on Durga Pujo and so I thought of doing a guest post on the very same theme.

Durga Pujo is celebrated in Bengal for mainly four days when Mother Goddess Durga along with her four children is believed to have come for her yearly visit to her parents' place on Earth from her Heavenly abode. I'll focus on a particular ritual called the Kumari / Kanya Pujo that is done on the third day of Durga Pujo or the Eighth day of Navaratri i.e. Ashtami. 

The ritual follows the worship of a girl between the ages of one to thirteen years who symbolizes the Kanya Kumari (i.e. Virgin) form of the Mother Goddess. This pujo is done in front of the idol and devotees worship the young girl as the incarnation of the very goddess. The kanya is adorned with jewels and flowers, her feet are balmed with turmeric and her forehead is marked with sindoor (vermillion) . Devotees recite prayers and chant slokas of Goddess Durga in her worship.

Source

I was worshiped multiple times as a kid and I used to love the whole celebration and receiving gifts after the pujo was done :D Have you ever been worshiped as a kanya when you were young?