Durga Puja in Kolkata

For a few days each autumn Kolkata rebuilds itself around Durga Puja. Neighbourhood committees commission temporary pavilions, called pandals, made of bamboo, cloth and cane and increasingly of sculptural materials chosen to a theme, and inside each stands a clay image of the goddess made in the potters' quarter at Kumartuli. Some pandals are modest street-corner structures, others are large commissioned installations with lighting design and queue systems. The city stays awake: crowds walk from pandal to pandal until dawn, food stalls line the routes, and on the final day the images are carried to the river and immersed. It sits on the UNESCO intangible heritage list.

What you actually see

• The pandals - temporary bamboo and cloth pavilions built to themes, from traditional to conceptual.
• Kumartuli - the potters' lanes where the clay images are built up and painted in the weeks beforehand.
• Night pandal hopping - crowds walking neighbourhood circuits from evening until early morning.
• Immersion day - the images taken through the streets to the river on the final afternoon.

When to go

The dates move with the lunar calendar and fall in late September or October. The main days are the last four; Kumartuli is worth visiting a week or two earlier, while the images are still being made. Nights are the point, and the biggest pandals only get busier after dark. Flights and hotels sell out months ahead.

Honest expectations

Kolkata is at its most crowded, and a popular pandal can mean an hour shuffling in a barricaded queue for a few seconds inside. Traffic is rerouted and taxis give up, so you walk a great deal, often in humid heat. Sound systems run until the small hours. Almost everything else in the city keeps holiday hours.

Nearby

Kumartuli, the Hooghly riverfront ghats and the College Street book market are all part of the same walk.