Bengal portrays different colours of folk belief, throughout its territory. The folk culture has seeped into the Bengali soil and its roots spread through different rituals and traditions. One such belief is nurtured in the villages of the Howrah district.

With the changing colours of the sky, women of the households mix their imagination into a water-based paste made from uncooked rice kernel (atoop chaal). As the paste gets thick like milk, imagination spreads its wings.

The sun has finally set in the West, it’s Bhoot Chaturdashi. The sky is tied between dusty purple and dark blue hue. The vast fields (tepantorer math) extend into the horizon, the trees dance in the wind, and night claws at the world. “Hum huna re, hum huna …” a rhythmic chant wavers in the breeze, before losing itself in the lights of the fireflies.

The chant carries your vision to a palki, you watch its swaying movement like in a trance. As it falls into a pit, it catches you off guard and you think “Alas! The Raghu dacoits are to attack now.” In a state of erratic emotions as you peek into the palki chills run down your spine.

Red sindoor decorating her forehead she sits there with her husband; the view is unlike any couple you have seen before. Skin so dark it competes with the black of night, and eyes like burning amber, they look back at you. They belong to the world below, you encountered the bhoot couple, on Bhoot Chaturdashi.

Imprints of this encounter are drawn all over the house, in every room. This folk tale takes the form of an elaborate alpona. The belief behind the tale is simple and sweet. Older couples in the family lineage, rise from the world of the dead to visit this world. A tradition of remembering and respecting the family tree.

A constant reminder of family, and heredity, lies in several rituals of Bengal. A tune that reverberates again and again, like on Mahalaya we offer food and water to our ancestors. Similarly, on Bhoot Chaturdashi we light fourteen candles or lamps in memory of our ancestors.

Lighting candles and having choddo-sakh on Bhoot Chaturdashi are among the two well-known practices. A day to remember the fourteen generations before us, a day to humbly pay tribute and remember them with love and light.

The special alpona for Bhoot Chaturdashi consists of the ghost couple and four palki-bearers (Kahar). All of them are souls from the world beyond. On this night, they visit their descendants, and folk belief suggests that if satisfied with the reception, they bless the future generations.

A celebration of one night, a gathering of generations, a gathering of souls old and new. Grihinis erase the marks, the next day with gobar jaal as the clock starts afresh.