Bhubaneswar: Festive season began with celebration of auspicious Navaratri puja of goddess Durga by transgenders here on Thursday.

On the first day of Navaratri, the transgenders belonging to Odisha Kinnar Akhada worshipped Maa Durga by setting up Kalash at Navadurga kothi in Palaspalli area. They brought holy water from Bindusagar pond near Lingaraj Temple on Thursday morning following Bilwa Baran ritual on Wednesday. The nine-day long worship commenced with all the rituals by Brahmins and servitors.

Total 21 transgenders will offer prayer to Maa Durga during Navaratri remaining on fast for nine days with consuming only one-time meal a day. Goddess Durga will be worshipped in nine forms with different attires during nine days, said transgender Meera Kinnar.

All the rituals will be performed as per the sacred scripture. Around 200 people will be offered prasad every night during the puja. We are making arrangement for distributing prasad for 2000 people on Mahastamee of Goddess Durga. On ninth day, wedding ceremony of young girls will be held. The programmes like Bhajan and most popular folk dance Dandia will be organised by the transgender group for two days starting from September 27, Meera added.