A SPECIAL Hindu festival of celebration and worship is set to take place at the weekend in the hope of bringing together Wiltshire’s Hindu community.

The Swindon Sanatan Association is celebrating Shree Shree goddess Kali Mata Puja on Sunday, October 30 at the Swindon Punjabi Community Centre in Cricklade Road.

Organiser Sujan Saha said: “Our aim is to bring this event to Swindon and celebrate it here each and every year.

“We want to make it a multicultural celebration and welcome people from all different faiths, cultures and backgrounds.”

Kali Puja is traditionally worshipped at night with tantric rites and is given offerings of red hibiscus flowers, sweets, rice and lentils.

It is prescribed that worshippers meditate throughout the night unit dawn in the belief that all evil will be destroyed.

The event begins at midnight on Saturday and continues through the early hours of Sunday morning, eventually finishing at 8pm.

From 2pm there will be Bengali and Bollywood music and dancing as well as activities for kids.

Debashis Saha, president of Swindon Sanatan Association, said: “We hold a very strong Hindu community in this town and we are trying to get everybody under this universal platform.

“We invite everyone to join with us to share the joy on this auspicious occasion and to seek the blessing of the divine mother.

Sujan added: “It makes us immensely proud and fills our hearts with immeasurable joy to be able to organise the festivities of the Hindu Bengali diaspora in and around Swindon from this year onwards.

“I invite everyone to be a part of this grand and colourful festival and make it worth the emotion and the hard work invested in it.”

For more information, search the Swindon Sanatan Association on Facebook.