HelloStampedFestivals
Durga Puja invitations
Shubho Sharodiya
4 designs
Free with an account: your invitation as a link, a QR code and a short video for WhatsApp.
Alpana
Bengali rice-flour lines in red and white, travelling inward from a doorway.
About this design
Bengali rice-flour drawing — white floral lines that begin at a doorway and travel inward, here rendered as red-and-white because that is the Durga Puja and Poila Boishakh pairing rather than a colour scheme somebody liked. Alpana is Bengali specifically; it is not a synonym for rangoli and the family will not be relabelled as one.
Marigold
A garland and toran at the head of the page, drawn as geometry.
About this design
A garland across the top and a toran hung at the head of the page, drawn as botanical geometry rather than as photographs of flowers. Warm by construction: the marigold is what a doorway wears on the morning of almost every occasion in this taxonomy, which is also why the family suits so many groups and leads none of them.
Kolam
Dot-grid geometry from Tamil and Telugu doorsteps, drawn at dawn.
About this design
White dot-grid geometry on a warm ground, the way a Tamil or Telugu doorstep is drawn at dawn. Named kolam and not rangoli on purpose: alpana in Bengal and aripan in Bihar are cousins with their own names, and this family draws only the South Indian one.
Editorial
A serif at size, one hairline above the date, generous margins.
About this design
Type and rules and nothing else: a serif at a large size, a hairline above the date, generous margins. It is the formal end of the range — a fiftieth anniversary, a convention, a wedding whose hosts want no ornament at all — and it is the family that ages best, because there is nothing in it to date.
Marked by Hindu families. Usually a hired hall, a temple and a school, for family, the wider community and friends. September to October, five days. Free invitation designs with RSVP and calendar, and no account for your guests.
Each one is a different visual tradition rather than a recolour of the same card. Tap a colour underneath to change the palette; every design carries your own wording, date and place.
About Durga Puja
- When it falls
- September to October, five days
- Who is usually asked
- family, the wider community and friends
- Where it usually happens
- a hired hall, a temple, a school and a clubhouse
- How the invitation speaks
- Warm — first names, and it sounds like the person sending it
- Customary opening line
- “Shubho Sharodiya” or, in English, “Shubho Sharodiya — join us for Pujo”
- Colours it is associated with
- Red, white and gold
- Marked by
- Hindu
Wording that works
Pujo at the community hall
Anjali at 10, bhog at 1, cultural programme from 5.
Questions people ask
- Do my guests need an account?
- No, and they never will. A guest opens the link, types their name and taps Going, Maybe or Can't go. No password, no phone number, no app. If a page ever asks your guests for a password, it is not us.
- Can I text my guests?
- Only the ones who asked to be texted. A guest gives a number on their own — on our page, never yours — and confirms it with a six-digit code before we will send anything. You never see the number. Texts are limited to three per event so an invitation cannot become a mailing list, and cancelling or moving an event is never counted against that.
- Does it work in WhatsApp?
- That is what it is built for. Pasting the link shows a picture of the invitation with the date and who is hosting, before anybody taps — and the page opens in whatever browser your guest has, on any phone, including the ones that are not iPhones.
- Can guests add it to Google Calendar?
- Google, Apple, Outlook and anything else that reads a calendar file. There is a button on the invitation itself, and it works before anybody answers. If you change the time or the place afterwards, their existing entry updates — it does not add a second one — and cancelling removes it.