Hindu festival photos are about fire and water, good and evil — simple but universal concepts

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Devotees immerse an idol of Hindu goddess Durga in a makeshift water pit at the end of Durga Puja festival in New Delhi, India, Thursday, Oct. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

Devotees prepare to immerse an idol of Hindu goddess Durga in a makeshift water pit at the end of Durga Puja festival in New Delhi, India, Thursday, Oct. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup) — Devotees immerse an idol of Hindu goddess Durga in a makeshift water pit at the end of Durga Puja festival in New Delhi, India, Thursday, Oct. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

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8:37 AM on Thursday, October 2

By The Associated Press

In South Asia, the season of festivals turns on two ancient elements: fire and water.

The festival of Dussehra ends with flames, as enormous effigies of the demon King Ravana collapse in roaring pyres, a dramatic celebration of Hindu deity Lord Rama’s victory and a reminder that arrogance and cruelty can be consumed by fire. Smoke and thunder echo through the night, blending devotion and spectacle.

Durga Puja closes with a different crescendo. The festival celebrates the feminine divine by venerating Goddess Durga, who is worshipped as the mother of the universe and for her triumph over the mythological demon Mahishasura.

Across eastern India, Bangladesh and parts of Myanmar, the festival ended with vibrant processions — music pounding, drums rolling, crowds chanting — carrying statues of the goddess Durga to rivers and ponds. There, amid song and splashing water, her clay form is immersed, dissolving into the currents. The ritual is both a farewell and a renewal, a riot of sound and color.

One ends in fire, the other in water. Both seek to convey the same message: the struggle between good and evil is eternal, and the rituals are its living memory.

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This is a photo gallery curated by AP photo editors.