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EveryParampara

Traditions of Kolkata

Home of Durga Puja, when clay goddesses fill the streets and the whole city turns out to see them.

Kolkata, once Calcutta, is the cultural capital of Bengal and a city of adda, or long talk, of sweet shops and of rivers of tram wire. Its great festival is Durga Puja each autumn, when thousands of neighbourhood pavilions rise and the city stays up through the nights to walk from one to another.

Kolkata
Photo: Ketanmehta4u, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Durga Puja

Artisans in Kumartuli make the clay images of the goddess and her children. The pandals, the bamboo and cloth pavilions, follow themes that can be a village, a temple or a political idea. On the last day, Dashami, women smear red vermilion on each other in sindoor khela and the images are taken to the Hooghly for immersion.

At the table

A Bengali meal moves from bitter to sweet: shukto, dal, fish curry with mustard, then mishti doi and rasgulla. Hilsa fish in the monsoon is prized. Street food includes kathi rolls, jhal muri and puchka, and a morning starts with luchi and alur dom.

Signature traditions of Kolkata

Durga Puja in KolkataThe autumn festival of the goddess, recognised by UNESCO as intangible heritage.Kali PujaThe night of the goddess Kali, held on Diwali.

Also part of it, and being written: Poila Boishakh (The Bengali new year in mid April.), Rasgulla (The sweet of chhana balls in syrup, central to Bengali celebration.).

A trail idea for Kolkata

  1. Kumartuli Watch clay images take shape in the potters' quarter.
  2. College Street Browse the great second-hand book market and its coffee house.
  3. Dakshineswar Kali Temple A riverside temple tied to the saint Ramakrishna.
About this page

Written by the EveryParampara desk with AI assistance. Opening hours, markets and festival dates change; check locally before travelling. Customs differ from place to place and family to family. If this is your tradition and we have it wrong, tell us.

KindSpiritualFestivalRite of passageTable customSeasonalDressPerformanceEtiquetteCraftGameFolkloreHomeCeremony
MealBreakfastLunchDinnerSupperTea-time and snacking customsTea, coffee and drinking ceremoniesSweets given and sharedFeasts and festival mealsFasting and breaking the fast

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Photo credits on this page

The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.

The weekly EveryParampara

Every week: one tradition from somewhere new, what is being celebrated around the world this week, and one idea explained.