Basanti Puja or Basant Navratri Durga Pooja is observed during Basant Navratri mainly in Bengal. Basant Navratri is the nine-day festival dedicated to Goddess Durga and in Bengal it is observed for last 3 days of Navratri. Basanti Puja 2010 date is March 22, 2010. In some areas, this festival is celebrated for 3-4 days, starting on Chaitra Shukla Saptami and ends on Chaitra Shukla Navami i.e. Ram Navami.

During Basanti Puja, some rituals are performed same as that of Durga Puja. Kalash Sthapana, Kumari Puja, Suhasini Pooja, etc are also observed during the festival. But it is not much significant as Durga Puja.

Durga Puja is one of the most celebrated festivals in Bengal. Durga Pooja starts with Mahalaya, the first phase of the waxing moon in Aashin maas (Ashwin month). Mahashashti, also known as Durga Puja shashti, is the inauguration day of Durga Puja in Bengal. Here is Durga Puja 2010 calendar or dates or schedule in Bengal:

• Mahalaya Durga Puja – 7 October, 2010 (Mahalaya Amavasya)
• Maha Sasthi Durga Puja – 13 October 2010
• Maha Saptami Durga Puja – 14 October 2010
• Mahashtami Durga Puja – 15 October 2010 (Durgashtami Puja)
• Navami Durga Puja – 16 October 2010 (Mahanabami or Durga Navami)
• Vijaya Dasami Durga Puja – 17 October 2010 (Bijoya Dashami)

The main Durga Pooja starts on Maha Saptami. Mahanavami marks the conclusion of Durga Puja. Durga Puja is performed for three days – Durga Shasthi, Mahashtami and Maha Navami.

Durga immersion or visarjan, the final event during Durga Puja may hit the deck of the pollution very hardly. Durga Puja 2009 is not a good year when we concern about the water pollution of major rivers in Orissa. No Durga mandap followed the rules and norms in immersion and thrown every pollutant related to Durga Puja into the rivers along with Durga idols in Mahanadi, Kathajodi, Kuakhai and Daya rivers of Orissa on the last day of Durga Puja 2009.  

Minati Singha writes for Times of India:

• The guidelines to prevent pollution went for a toss with over 300 idols of Durga immersed in the major rivers in Bhubaneswar and Cuttack. According to the Orissa State Pollution Control Board (OSPCB) norms, traditional clay should be used for making idols rather than baked clay. It also prohibits the use of toxic and non-degradable chemical dyes and instead prescribes natural colours used in food products.
• The guidelines also dictated that flowers, cloths and decorations should be removed and collected for separate disposal before immersion. Also, the leftover material at the immersion sites should be collected by local civic bodies within 24 hours after the ceremony. “Synthetic colours cause harm to the existing water sources. Apart from polluting the river, it introduces a slow but steady change in the composition of the water,” said an OSPCB analyst.
• Sadly, however, these rules were blatantly flouted on the last day of the five-day long revelry and festivity on Tuesday night with about idols along with decorations were dumped in Mahanadi, Kathajodi, Kuakhai and Daya rivers. On immersion day, over 100 puja organizing committees in Bhubaneswar took out huge processions and assembled at Saheed Nagar and Nayapalli for the immersion ceremony. But the river ghats bore the burnt with the deluge of garbage, puja material and idols.
• The OSPCB member secretary said, “We monitor water quality tests in major rivers like Kathajodi, Kuakhai and Daya rivers before and after immersions. For a fair assessment of water quality, we conduct all kinds of tests such as pH level, bio-chemical oxygen demand, conductivity, turbidity, total dissolved solids and other heavy metals.”
• Das, however, added that that immersion of idols did not have any significant polluting effect on the rivers. “From the water samples collected during the last three years, we didn’t find any significant pollution due to immersion unlike in other states such as Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal,” he said. He further said that the pollution level was minimal because the water in these rivers were flowing and the idols were immersed over a large area instead of a particular spot. However residents alleged that the administration doesn’t take any steps to clear the place and the ghats present a sorry sight the next morning. Apart from parts of idols and other materials lying around, these areas are the daily destination of several people for ablutions.

Durgashtami, also known as Mahashtami or Virashtami, is the most important day in Durga Navratri and Durga Puja. Durgashtami 2009 date is September 26. On this day, Kumari Puja and Suhasini Puja are performed. In Bengal, Sandhi Puja is observed at the conjunction Durgashtami and Maha Navami days.

Durgashtami 2009 is very significant as it falls on Moola Nakshatram day. Moola Nakshatram arrives at 3.59 in the evening on 25^th September (Maha Saptami) and moves on at 6’o clock in the evening on 26^th September (Durgashtami). As Moola Nakshtram is the birth star of the Mother Goddess, this Navratri Puja is most auspicious as per Hindu beliefs. According to Jyotish, it may mark some good results for Hindus and Hindu religion. In 2010, Moola Nakshatram will be coinciding with Maha Sashti or Durga Shashti. On this day Durga Puja 2010 will start in Bengal.

On Durgashtami, Bathukamma Panduga, the biggest traditional festival, is celebrated in Telangana region of Andhra Pradesh. On Moola Nakshtram day, Goddess Kanaka Durga is decorated and worshipped in Maha Saraswati Devi alankaram. For Saraswati Puja, Moola Nakshatram is the main aspect. On this day, Saraswati Puja starts all over India.

In Basara Gnana Saraswati Devi Temple, Adilabad district of Andhra Pradesh, Aksharabhyasam, also known as Vidyarambham is the main event on Moola Nakshtra yuktha Saraswati Puja.

Durga Navratri or Durga Puja is the most auspicious time to worship the Mother Goddess. During these days, Durga will be in full swing and her powers are very active to bless her devotees and to destroy the evil forces. Devi Mahatmyam or the Chandi Path, also known as Durga Saptashati, gives full details about her power, knowledge and merits of Durga Puja.   

M N Chatterjee for Times of India writes:

• Subrahmania Bharati invokes Mahashakti: “Mind and words are powerless/ to encompass your glory/ whose extent is as immeasurable/ as that of cosmic Cosmic energy in full play during navratri.”
• Devi is beautiful and bountiful, beneficent and terrifying, compassionate and ruthlessly righteous. She is Durga and Kali in Bengal, Ambika and Bhadrakali in Gujarat, Vaishnodevi in Jammu and Kashmir, Chamunda in Karnataka, Santoshi Ma and Bhavani in Maharashtra and Kamakhya in Assam. She is invoked in many more forms that symbolize the Devi’s characteristic attributes. To most of us she is just Ma, the universal mother, who is conceived as protector of those who need her protection.
• The 700 verses of the Devi Mahatmyam, also called Durga Saptasati of the Markandeya Purana , is recited during Durga Puja. She is hailed as the origin of all the worlds, and is said to have all the three gunas of sattva , rajas and tamas , that is, purity, passion and inertia. Yet she is without defects as the primordial matter, Prakriti , the ultimate resort of all and incomprehensible even to the trinity of Brahma, Vishnu and Maheshwara .
• The Devi Mahatmyam projects a three-fold vision of the goddess in three main episodes. First, Vishnu kills the two demons deluded by Mahamaya, Madhu and Kaitabha. In the second story, Mahishasura, the buffalo-demon with his gang of desperadoes creates havoc in heaven and drives out the gods from their abode. The Devi Chandi, created by the combined effulgence of the gods, mounted on a lion and equipped with their diverse weapons, kills the buffalo demon and his aides after a protracted and gruesome battle.
• In the third and final episode, the longest one, she overcomes the ferocious Shumbha and Nishumbha along with their aides Chanda and Munda. She is therefore called Chamunda. Central to her identity is her victory over the buffalo-demon, his annihilation and subsequent restoration of cosmic balance. It is her emergence as Mahishasuramardini which is etched in the popular imagination and this is what is mainly celebrated during the Navratri festival.
• The composite imagery of the supreme Shakti with the powers of all the gods concentrated in her, marking a shift of the power paradigm from the all-male preserve to the feminine dimension of divinity, is a unique aspect of the Hindu polytheistic pantheon. Devi Durga flanked by Saraswati, the goddess of learning, Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth, Ganesha, the remover of obstacles and Kartikeya, the god of prowess, and her vaahan or vehicle, the lion, take on the buffalo demon to overpower him. This is a part of the iconographic representation of the cosmic struggle enacted every autumn during the Durga Puja. It is of great symbolic significance. The desire for wealth and power has to be regulated and integrated with the need for self-restraint through education and true learning to ensure the individual’s balanced growth. The lion overpowering the buffalo demon conveys the strength and determination with which the irrepressible ego and unbridled lust have to be curbed for good.
• Mahashakti could have reduced the demons to ashes by merely looking at them. But she chooses to engage them in mortal combat and directs her weapons at them thus purifying them in the process with her divine touch to absolve them of their sins. There is no vendetta, only compassion. Eradicate the sin, not the sinner, seems to be the message. Shakti is also closely associated with vegetation and nourishment, so important for energy; hence her appearance around the harvest season.