Liverpool Puja

Bengali Association of Merseyside & North of England

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BAMNE celebrating Mahalaya on 06-10-24

Who We Are

We are a registered charity, and our aim is to showcase Indian religion, culture, language, heritage, music, art, literature, and history. We seek to promote integration of communities in the United Kingdom. Durga Puja is the main event in our calendar and in addition, we also celebrate many other Indian festivals and cultural events.

We want to welcome you to our glorious Liverpool Puja, and by clicking the links below you can find out more about us and how to become a part of our family.

Durga puja, which is celebrated in India for thousands of years, has now been acknowledged as a World Heritage by UNESCO. In the UNESCO website the Durga Puja is described as:

“Durga Puja is an annual festival celebrated in September or October, most notably in Kolkata, in West Bengal of India, but also in other parts of India and amongst the Bengali diaspora. It marks the ten-day worship of the Hindu mother-goddess Durga. In the months preceding the festival, small artisanal workshops sculpt images of Durga and her family using unfired clay pulled from the Ganga River…

…The worship of the goddess then begins on the inaugural day of Mahalaya, when eyes are painted onto the clay images to bring the goddess to life. It ends on the tenth day, when the images are immersed in the river from where the clay came. Thus, the festival has also come to signify ‘home-coming’ or a seasonal return to one’s roots. 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…..” (ref : Durga Puja in Kolkata – intangible heritage – Culture Sector – UNESCO )

Started by a few scattered Bengali families, BAMNE has kept the tradition going in Liverpool, for nearly 50 years. Today the Durga Puja in Liverpool, is a big religious and cultural event that involves not only Bengali people, but many more as it embraces the wider diaspora of the subcontinent as well as local people from Liverpool, Wirral, Cheshire, North Wales and the rest of the country as well.

Our Liverpool puja has historically been self-funded by the generous donations of the members and visitors. However, as we seek to grow and expand our activities, we are also looking for financial support through grants and other sources of funding from the UK Government.

Currently, a donation of £40 per person allows you to become a member of BAMNE, which is less than £4 per month. For our young members aged 18-25, we charge only £25 for the whole year. With your donations we try our best to cover the costs for 13 complimentary meals, venue hire charges, cultural programmes, storage of the idol, transport, accommodation and so many other costs required to stage all the events.

Events Schedule