Sindur khela
Bengali women's game of smearing sindoor on each other on the last day of Durga Puja.
Also: sindoor khela, sindoor utsav
Sindur khela is the play with vermilion done by married Bengali women on the last day of Durga Puja, when they smear sindoor on the goddess's image and then on each other's faces and partings, with sweets, before the image is immersed. It is a festival custom, not a wedding rite, but it keeps the meaning that makes sindoor important at a wedding: the red mark of a married woman and her family's luck. In recent years, widows and unmarried women have also joined in some neighbourhoods.
Region: South Asia