Kali Puja: What, Why, When, How

What it is

Kali Puja, also called Shyama Puja, is the worship of the goddess Kali on the new-moon night of the Diwali season. It is the great night festival of Bengal, kept also in Bangladesh, Assam, Tripura, Odisha and the Anga region of Bihar around Bhagalpur. Shib Chunder Bose, writing in Calcutta in the nineteenth century, called it second only to Durga Puja there. While much of India worships Lakshmi on this new moon, Bengali families worship Kali, the Mother who removes evil and protects her children. The puja is done late at night, at the deep midnight of the new moon.

Homes are lit with lamps and candles, children set off fireworks, and great clay images of Kali are worshipped in community pandals and in temples such as Kalighat and Dakshineswar in Kolkata. Bengali communities in the US, the UK, Canada and Australia keep the puja in temples and community halls, often on the nearest weekend, with the main puja on the night the panjika gives.

Why it is kept

Kali comes forth. The Devi Mahatmya, a part of the Markandeya Purana, tells how the goddess Ambika (Durga) fought the armies of the demon kings Shumbha and Nishumbha. When their generals Chanda and Munda came to seize her, her face grew dark with anger, and from her forehead came Kali, dark, fierce and fearless. Kali overcame the two generals, and Ambika gave her the name Chamunda for it. In the next battle, against Raktabija, every drop of whose blood became a new demon, Kali took in each drop before it could touch the ground, and so the demon could be overcome. In these stories Kali is the Mother's own power, fighting for the gods and for the world.

Why Kali stands on Shiva. Bengal tells a story about the image families see in every pandal. After her victory Kali danced with such joy that the whole earth shook. The gods asked Shiva to calm her. Shiva lay down in her path. When her foot touched him, she looked down, saw that it was her own husband, and put out her tongue in shame and surprise, as people in Bengal do when they are shocked. So she is worshipped as she stood in that moment. Bose recorded this story in Calcutta in the nineteenth century; it is a story of Bengal, not of the Devi Mahatmya.

Kali as Mother. For her devotees Kali is first of all "Ma", the Mother. Ramakrishna, the nineteenth-century saint, served as the priest of the Kali temple at Dakshineswar, north of Kolkata. Max Müller wrote that he looked on the image of Kali as his mother and the mother of the universe, and sang and prayed to her as a child to its mother.

The texts behind the story

• The Markandeya Purana, translated with notes by F. Eden Pargiter (Bibliotheca Indica; Calcutta: Asiatic Society, 1904) (Devi Mahatmya, canto LXXXVII, Kali comes from Ambika's forehead and is named Chamunda, pp. 499–500 (leaves n544–n545); canto LXXXVIII, the slaying of Raktabija, pp. 501–506 (leaves n546–n551))
• Shib Chunder Bose, The Hindoos as They Are: A Description of the Manners, Customs and Inner Life of Hindoo Society in Bengal (Calcutta: W. Newman; London: Edward Stanford, 1881): the image of Kali standing on Shiva and the Bengali story of why, the midnight (nishi) puja on the last night of the waning moon in Kartik, and Kali Puja as next in importance to Durga Puja. Summarised in our words; the author's own judgements are not repeated. Checked on the page images. (chapter IX, “The Kali Poojah Festival”, pp. 136–137 (leaves n153–n154))
• F. Max Müller, Râmakrishna: His Life and Sayings (London: Longmans, Green, 1898): the Kali temple at Dakshineswar, and Ramakrishna as its priest, who looked on the image of Kali as his mother and the mother of the universe. Müller died 1900. Summarised in our words; checked on the page images. (pp. 35–36 (leaves n42–n43))

When it is kept

Kali Puja is on the Amavasya (new moon) of Ashwin in the amanta calendar, which is the Amavasya of Kartika in the purnimanta calendar and falls in the Bengali month of Kartik. The puja is done at nishita, the deep midnight (the eighth of the fifteen parts of the night). So the app gives the night on which Amavasya is present at nishita at your location. If it is present at nishita on two nights, the app gives the first. If it is present at nishita on neither night, the app gives the day on which Amavasya is present at sunrise. The app also shows the nishita window on that night, inside Amavasya.

The date, from the calendar engine

• Kali Puja 2027: Kali Puja falls on Thursday, October 28, 2027 in Washington DC (Bengali rule, computed for this city). The date is the same in New Delhi.

The date depends on your city. Every city we cover is on the year page.

Traditions and regional customs

• Bengali (as Bose records it): Kali Puja at nishita (midnight) on the Amavasya of Kartik (engine id kali-puja)
• North and West Indian families: Lakshmi Puja on the same Amavasya, in pradosh after sunset (engine id lakshmi-puja; see the Diwali guide)

Why the day can differ

Kali Puja and Diwali's Lakshmi Puja are usually on the same night. But their rules look at different times: Lakshmi Puja at the evening after sunset, Kali Puja at midnight. So in some years Amavasya holds midnight on one night and the evening only on the next, and Kali Puja in Bengal is the night before Lakshmi Puja in Delhi. Midnight and sunset are local, so a family abroad can also be a night apart from relatives in India. Bengali almanacs (panjikas) are computed by their own methods, and the app's nights have not been checked against them; a temple that follows a panjika may keep another night.

How to keep it at home

1. Clean the house and the puja place during the day. At dusk, light lamps and candles at the door, the windows and the courtyard. Many Bengali families light fourteen small lamps on the night before (Bhoot Chaturdashi), as a custom for the ancestors.
2. Most families go to a community pandal or a temple for the main puja, which a priest performs late at night, near nishita. If you worship at home, set a picture or small image of Kali on a clean cloth, with a lamp, incense, red hibiscus flowers, sweets and fruit.
3. Offer the flowers and the lamp with a simple prayer to the Mother, and sing a song to Kali if your family knows one. Many Bengali families sing the songs to Shyama (Shyama Sangeet). A short Sanskrit prayer for the flower offering is "Kali Kali Mahakali", one verse that calls her by four of her names; an old Bengali book of daily worship gives it among the verses for offering flowers to Kali, and it is in our library with its meaning.
4. Bose records that in Bengal every family, on this night, also worships the goddess, as Lakshmi or Kali, before the household's small basket of paddy, the sign of its food and wealth. After the puja, share the prasad with family and neighbours.

Fasting

Some devotees fast through the day and break the fast after the night puja; many families do not fast. Anyone who is pregnant, unwell, diabetic, elderly or on regular medicine should keep a light fast, or none, and talk to a doctor first.

Food

The bhog, the food offered and then shared, is often khichuri (rice and lentils), mixed vegetables (labra), fried vegetables and payesh (rice pudding), with sweets such as sandesh. Customs differ from family to family and pandal to pandal.

For children

Ma Kali is the strong Mother who keeps her children safe. Long ago, after she had won a hard fight against bad forces, she was so happy that she began to dance. She danced and danced, and the whole earth began to shake! Lord Shiva, her husband, lay down gently in her path so that she would stop. When her foot touched him, Kali looked down and saw who it was. "Oh!" she said, and out came her tongue in surprise. She stopped dancing, and the earth was calm again. That is why, in her pictures, Kali stands on Shiva with her tongue out.

Something to do together

With a grown-up beside you, help light the lamps at the door at dusk. Then draw a row of lamps on paper and colour the flames, one for each person in your family.

Sources

• Panchang engine rule kali-puja (packages/panchang/data/festivals.json): Ashwin Amavasya (amanta) at nishita, first night when both, the sunrise day when neither, with the nishita window; Kolkata dates checked in packages/panchang/test/festivals-traditions.test.ts. Dates in the app come only from this engine.
• The Markandeya Purana, translated with notes by F. Eden Pargiter (Bibliotheca Indica; Calcutta: Asiatic Society, 1904) (cantos LXXXVII–LXXXVIII, pp. 499–506 (leaves n544–n551): Kali from Ambika's forehead, the name Chamunda, and Raktabija)
• Shib Chunder Bose, The Hindoos as They Are (Calcutta, 1881), chapter IX, “The Kali Poojah Festival”: the image and its Bengali story (pp. 136–137); the midnight (nishi) puja on the darkest night of Kartik (p. 137); every family's puja before the household's basket of paddy (p. 139); lamps, fireworks and children lighting bundles of sticks on that night (p. 140); the Kalighat temple (p. 142). Bose's death year was not found; nothing is reproduced. Checked on the page images (leaf = page + 17). (pp. 136–142 (leaves n153–n159))
• F. Max Müller, Râmakrishna: His Life and Sayings (London, 1898), pp. 35–36: the Dakshineswar Kali temple and Ramakrishna as its priest.

Related guides

• Diwali (Deepavali)
• Durga Puja
• Naraka Chaturdashi (Choti Diwali)