Kali Puja · Shyama Puja Festival The new moon of Kartik, the night Bengal worships Kali: the dark mother standing on Shiva, with the sword and the severed head in two hands and the other two giving and reassuring.
The name
The same day, written in each of the six scripts this app keeps
- English
- Kali Puja · Shyama Puja
- हिन्दी
- काली पूजा
- বাংলা
- কালীপূজা · শ্যামাপূজা
Only the names actually in use are listed. A blank script is not an omission: the day may simply not be kept there, or be kept under a different festival's name.
UTC+5:30
The date of a festival depends on the place: a tithi that ends at dusk in Chennai can still be running at dusk a thousand kilometres west, which moves the day. Sunrise and sunset here are computed for the place above.
When it falls next
Looking for the calendar this day belongs to
This day does not fall again in the next three years at this place. A few days are tied to the solar month rather than to the civil year, so a year can hold two of them or none.
What the day is
The new moon of Kartik, the night Bengal worships Kali: the dark mother standing on Shiva, with the sword and the severed head in two hands and the other two giving and reassuring. The puja is done at midnight with red hibiscus and lamps; Dakshineswar and Kalighat and the barir pujo of the old houses keep it through the night, and Tarapith and the cremation-ground shrines keep the fiercest form of it. The songs of Ramprasad and Kamalakanta to the mother belong to this night.
- Deity
- Kali, Shyama, Shiva
- Kind
- Festival Days of celebration: the house is decorated, a feast is cooked and the temple is visited.
The hour
The rule in words
The Amavasya running at nishita, true midnight, because Kali is worshipped at night. That is a different instant from the pradosha the north reads for Diwali, so the two can carry different dates although they are one night.
The fast
Those who keep it fast through the day and eat after the midnight puja. The offering is khichuri and five fried vegetables and sweets, and in some houses fish or meat, which the Shakta rite allows; traditions vary, and a family follows its own.
Where the regions differ
Bengal, Assam, Odisha and Mithila keep Kali Puja on the night the rest of India keeps Lakshmi Puja and Diwali, and the lamps go up on the same evening in Bengali houses too. Odisha and parts of Bengal keep the following day for Alakshmi, who is sent out of the house.
Every date here is computed from the Sun and Moon for the place entered, by the rule printed beside it. A printed panchangam can differ by a day where an almanac reads a tithi at a different instant, and a family's own custom always comes first. Where the practice genuinely varies, the text says so rather than choosing for you.