Mahalaya is a significant day in the Hindu calendar that marks the beginning of Devi Paksha and the end of Pitri Paksha, which is a period of mourning dedicated to the ancestors on the paternal side of the family. It is celebrated roughly seven days before Durga Puja, the biggest festival of the Bengalis, which is celebrated annually during the Hindu calendar month Ashvin (September and October) . The day of Mahalaya is believed to be the day when Goddess Durga officially begins her journey from Mount Kailash, where she resides with her husband Lord Shiva, to her maternal home on Earth. Bengalis celebrate it with much fervor and remark intermittently about the festive autumn weather and the ‘pujo-pujo‘ feel. Every Bengali household wakes up early in the morning to customarily listen to a collection of songs and mantras called ‘Mahishasura Mardini’, in the sonorous voice of Birendra Krishna Bhadra, which invoke the Goddess. The day is also a reminder of the power of truth, of courage, and of the universal fact that in the end, good will always triumph over evil.