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       A many-armed idol of a Hindu goddess presided at the front of a high school gym in Sterling on Saturday. A crowd of people gathered around it, their hands pressed together as they repeated a Sanskrit prayer intoned by a priest.

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       The goddess is Durga and this weekend marks her annual festival, the Durga Puja, celebrated by Bengali communities in India and across the world. The legend associated with the festival tells the story of how Durga came to defeat a demon named Mahishasura, whom the gods blessed with invulnerability to attacks by either men or gods. Believing no woman could defeat him, Mahishasura invaded the Earth. The gods in turn created Durga, imbuing her with their power, and sent her to battle Mahishasura. The festival idols often mark the moment of her victory, when she decapitates the demon.

       The celebrations at Park View High School began Friday night and continue through the weekend. With incense filling the air, brightly-dressed people came forward to offer the shimmering idol gifts of food and flowers, and to share their wishes with the goddess.

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       The festival has a religious dimension, but it’s also a chance for the Bengali community in Northern Virginia to reconnect and pass on its traditions to a generation of children growing up in the United States. In the school auditorium there’s singing, dancing, skits, plays and headline performances by visiting Indian musicians. In the cafeteria, a squad of workers will serve up 5,000 home-cooked meals.

       “We make everyone feel like a family,” said Sumanta Chakraborty, the general secretary of the Northern Virginia Bengali Association.

       In 2021, UNESCO added the Durga Puja celebrations in Kolkata, the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, to its list of intangible cultural heritage of humanity. The festival takes months of preparation with designers building clay idols of Durga, the mother goddess and a demon slayer, who is brought to life at the start of the celebrations when her eyes are painted on. At the conclusion of the festivities the idols are returned to the river.

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       Durga is also linked with motherhood, and in the Park View school gym she sat beside idols of her four children. Animesh Chowdhury, one of the priests who led the group prayer, said the festival became associated with the time of year that women would return to visit their parents.

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       While Kolkata is at the heart of the celebrations, Durga Puja is marked throughout India and among the Bengali diaspora.

       There is a major Durga Puja held in Montgomery County, and families have been celebrating in Virginia for three decades, Chakraborty said. The Virginia event started small, with about 150 participants in a backyard, but has grown over the year to require a school-sized vessel.

       The theme of homecoming and connection to community resonated among the participants. In the cafeteria, Swati Ghosh, 43, was eating a lunch of rice and lentils, cabbage, fried potato, tomato chutney and rice pudding. The prayers to Durga are part of the reason to come, but attendees said it’s really a chance to get together. Throughout the weekend, Ghosh said she’ll see friends and family she knows from India — and people she’s met through the annual celebrations.

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       “It makes you feel more connected to the culture,” she said.

       As Ghosh spoke, a group of teenagers paraded by with signs advertising a play they would be performing later.

       For Bengali Americans who grew up in the United States, the festival is a link back to their heritage.

       Avantika Senroy, 17, said she has been coming to Durga Puja since she was a kid and regards it the way other children think of Christmas. She’ll spend the weekend celebrating and will dance on Sunday, but she had to get home early Saturday because she’s busy with college applications. Even after Senroy leaves home, she knows the festival will always be there, she said.

       “Being able to come back to this every year — it’s a comforting feeling,” she said.

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