Know About Bhoot Chaturdashi, Bengal's Pre-Diwali Ritual Where 'Spirits Return Home'!

In the waning moon of Kartik, as the evening sky deepens to indigo, something quietly magical unfolds across West Bengal. While much of India prepares for the grand spectacle of Diwali, Bengali households observe a more intimate ritual: Bhoot Chaturdashi, the night when the veil between worlds grows gossamer-thin.

It's the 14th lunar day before the new moon, falling just before Kali Puja, and tradition holds that ancestral spirits—the Choddo Purush or fourteen generations of forefathers—return to visit their descendants. But they're not alone. Restless spirits and malevolent forces are also said to wander freely on this liminal night, making it a time for both remembrance and protection, as per local tales.

Choddo Prodip, As Lamps Evade the Shadows

As dusk settles, the ritual begins. Fourteen earthen lamps—choddo prodip—are lit and placed strategically throughout homes: near doorways, in darkened corners, beside the sacred tulsi plant, along windowsills where shadows gather. Each flame guides one generation home whilst keeping darkness at bay. The preparation is meticulous. Homes are cleaned thoroughly, leaving no corner for negative energies to lurk.

“When I was little, Dida (grandma) would gently lift me up so I could help her carry each of the fourteen lamps. I felt proud, but also small beneath the glow to be able to be part of the ritual,” reminiscences Shreya Ghosh, a 28-year-old marketing executive who lives in the Ballygunge area of Kolkata, “Even now, lighting those lamps, I feel Dida’s voice whisper in my ear, even though she’s no more with us: our ancestors are near.” 

Believed to be celebrated to evade the evil army of Narakasura and because of local beliefs and folklore surrounding otherworldly activities around Diwali time, the festival has no documented historical records or references as to how old it is or how it originated.

Choddo Shaak, Bitterness With Blessings and Warnings

Complementing the lamps is an equally significant tradition: choddo shaak, a meal prepared with fourteen different leafy greens. Spinach, fenugreek, radish leaves, amaranth, and an array of seasonal vegetables are chopped, cooked, and served—each variety bringing its own flavour and nutritional virtue.

“Amar ma amake shikhiechhilen je choddo shaak khabarer thekeo beshi kichhu: prottekta shaaker nijer ekta shad ache, nijer ekta shomoy ache. (My mother taught me that the choddo shaak is more than food: each leaf has its own taste, its own time), says Mausumi Banerjee, 61, who lives in Howrah, “Beto, shushoni, gulancha — fourteen greens, fourteen blessings. Eating them binds me to seasons, to health, and to forefathers who once cooked with the same green herbs.”

The strange part about the whole festival would be the fear-mongering of getting kidnapped by ghosts that Bengali mothers instil in their children in order to make them feed on the bitter shaak. The practice is part health wisdom, part spiritual offering. As winter approaches, these nutrient-dense greens fortify the body against seasonal ailments. But they also serve as pure, simple offerings to ancestors: food from the earth, prepared with love, shared across the threshold of existence.

The Artisans' Craft

In Kumartuli, Kolkata's famed artisan quarter, the weeks leading up to Bhoot Chaturdashi see skilled craftspeople at work. But this time in a new light. This time, they are not making their usual beautiful faces or perfect eyes, they are plastering random figurines, broken, twisted, maligned, fierce and funny even. These are bhoot figures, made to be burnt during the Chaturdashi rituals at night to mark the burning of the bad spirits that have arrived on earth. 

“We make much smaller and very rough and crude clay figures for Bhoot Chaturdashi, not the grand goddesses for Durga Puja, but crooked evil forms:, bad spirits and sometimes even random ones like Anabelle or Nun”, says Ratan Pal to us busy making a Kali idol, and who runs a workshop in the Kumartuli Lane, “Customers ask for Hollywood ghosts, clowns and even couple dressed ghosts. Over the years, demand shifts: less fear, more fun.” 

The neighbourhood's narrow lanes, usually dominated by towering Kali idols during this time, also take on a different character this time of year; smaller, more funnier and random rudimentary figures emerge from clay and paint.

Living Traditions

Often described as Bengal's answer to Halloween, the comparison rather misses the point. Where Halloween revels in the macabre made playful, Bhoot Chaturdashi dwells in genuine spiritual belief, a framework for confronting mortality, honouring lineage, and acknowledging that the dead remain woven into the fabric of living.

"Oh, how I used to hate eating the shaak, but had to cause Ma had me in the grasp of fear that if I didn’t ghosts will carry me and take me somewhere,” reminiscences Anurag Banerjee, a resident of CR Park in Delhi and grew up in Kolkata, “But now that I’m away from home, traditions like these are something you miss immensely. No amount of Diwali parties or anything else can suffice.”

Just like Kali Puja for Bengalis precedes Diwali, Bhoot Chaturdashi holds its own space. It's in the flicker of those fourteen flames, in the bitter-sweet taste of leafy greens, in the stories passed from generations in the Bengal families. And not to forget, the demand for lamps and fresh greens provides small, seasonal income for local potters and vegetable sellers, supporting the informal economy at a micro-level.