Festival · Kali

Kali Puja

The night of Goddess Kali, also called Shyama Puja, on the new moon of Diwali: the great festival of that night in Bengal, Assam and Odisha. She is worshipped at midnight, as the Mother who destroyed the demon Raktabija and frees her children from fear.

Kali Puja 2026
Sunday 8 November 2026
New Delhi

For New Delhi, Sunday 8 November 2026

Amavasya tithi

Begins
11:28 am
Ends
12:32 pm, 9 Nov
Sunrise
6:38 am
Sunset
5:31 pm
Moonrise
Not this day
Moonset
4:35 pm

Worked out for your city. Panchangs can differ by a minute or so.

Full panchang for this day →

Puja times

For New Delhi, Sunday 8 November 2026

Nishita Kaal puja

11:39 pm to 12:31 am, 9 Nov

Amavasya begins
11:28 am
Amavasya ends
12:32 pm, 9 Nov

Worked out for your city. Panchangs can differ by a minute or so.

How it is kept

Customs vary by region and family

  • Worship Goddess Kali at midnight, in Nishita Kaal, with red hibiscus flowers
  • Light lamps and offer sweets and bhog
  • Visit the pandals and her temples, and sing Shyama Sangeet
Read the Kali Chalisa →

What it remembers

Kali Puja, called Shyama Puja in Bengal, is the worship of Goddess Kali on the new-moon night of Diwali, the darkest night of the autumn. While most of India worships Goddess Lakshmi that evening, Bengal, Assam and Odisha keep the night for Kali, the Mother who destroyed the demons no one else could stop and who frees her children from fear. Her puja is done at midnight, by lamplight, with red hibiscus flowers.

Raktabija and the drops of blood

The Devi Mahatmya tells of the demon Raktabija, whose boon made every drop of his blood that touched the ground rise up as another demon like him. The more the Goddess wounded him, the more of him there were. Goddess Kali spread across the battlefield and took every drop before it could fall, until no new demon could rise and Raktabija was defeated.

Born from Durga’s brow

When the asuras Chanda and Munda came against Goddess Durga with their army, her face darkened with anger and Goddess Kali sprang from her brow, dark, fierce and laughing. She scattered the army and defeated the two generals, and Durga named her Chamunda. The demons who had driven the gods from heaven, Shumbha and Nishumbha among them, fell before the Goddess and her powers.

Shyama, the dark one

In Bengal Kali is Shyama, the dark one, and the new-moon puja is Shyama Puja. The gentle form most homes worship, Dakshina Kali, with her right foot forward and her hands raised to bless, is credited to the tantric scholar Krishnananda Agamavagisha in the sixteenth century. The great public night of worship grew in the eighteenth, when Raja Krishnachandra of Nadia is said to have asked his people to keep it.

The songs of the night

The poets Ramprasad Sen and Kamalakanta sang to Goddess Kali as a child sings to its mother, now scolding, now pleading, always trusting. Their songs, Shyama Sangeet, are still sung through Kali Puja night. At Dakshineswar, Sri Ramakrishna served her as Bhavatarini, she who carries us across, and called her simply Ma.

Keeping the night

Kali Puja belongs to the night, with the main worship at midnight, in Nishita Kaal. At home a short, calm puja before her image is enough; pandals and temples keep it through the night. Families keep it in many ways; follow your own tradition where it differs.

  1. Fast through the day, as many families do, and eat after the puja or the next morning.
  2. Clean the home and the place of worship, draw alpana at the door, and set up an image or picture of Goddess Kali on a red cloth.
  3. At dusk, light rows of lamps and candles round the home, at the door and on the roof.
  4. At midnight, in Nishita Kaal, worship her with red hibiscus (jaba) flowers, often 108 strung in a garland, with red sandal paste, sindoor, incense and a lamp.
  5. Offer bhog: khichuri, fried vegetables, payesh, sweets and fruit, as your family’s custom is.
  6. Chant Om Krim Kalikayai Namah, read the Kali Chalisa or sing Shyama Sangeet, and wave the lamp in her aarti.
  7. Share the prasad, and in the morning give to those in need.

What you need

  • An image or picture of Goddess Kali, and a red cloth
  • Red hibiscus flowers, and a garland of them
  • Red sandal paste, sindoor and incense
  • Lamps of ghee or mustard oil, and candles
  • Khichuri, sweets and fruit for the bhog
  • The Kali Chalisa to read from

Across India

Bengal

The great night of the year after Durga Puja. Kolkata and its towns fill with pandals and tall images of the Goddess, above all at Barasat and at Naihati, home of the towering Boro Maa. The night before is Bhoot Chaturdashi, when fourteen lamps are lit and fourteen greens eaten to keep the spirits of the dark away.

Kalighat

The old temple of Kalighat in Kolkata, one of the Shakti Peethas, where Sati’s toes are said to have fallen, is crowded through the night, with the Goddess dressed for her puja.

Dakshineswar

At Dakshineswar on the Hooghly, where Sri Ramakrishna was priest, Bhavatarini is worshipped through the night and devotees queue from the evening.

Tarapith

At Tarapith in Birbhum, the seat of Tara, the second Mahavidya, the night is one of the holiest of the year, and the worship goes on until dawn. Some temples here and elsewhere keep an old custom of animal offering; many homes and pandals offer fruit or a gourd in its place.

Assam

Kali Puja is kept in homes and pandals across the state, and at Kamakhya on Nilachal hill, where the ten Mahavidyas have temples of their own, the night is kept with lamps.

Odisha

Shyama Puja is kept in homes and pandals, and on the same night families burn bundles of jute stalks, kaunria kathi, to light the way for their ancestors.

When it falls

Amavasya of Ashvina (Kartika in North India). Kept on the day this tithi holds at midnight.

These are the usual rules. A few days can differ by a day in your tradition, so check with your temple.

Kali Puja in the coming years

New Delhi, India time

  1. 2026Sunday 8 November 2026
  2. 2027Thursday 28 October 2027
  3. 2028Tuesday 17 October 2028

Questions

When is Kali Puja in 2026?

Sunday 8 November 2026, in New Delhi. In a few places it can fall a day apart, so the date above is worked out for your city.

When does Kali Puja fall?

Amavasya of Ashvina (Kartika in North India). Kept on the day this tithi holds at midnight.

How is Kali Puja kept?

Families worship Goddess Kali at midnight, in Nishita Kaal, with red hibiscus flowers, light lamps and offer sweets and bhog and visit the pandals and her temples, and sing Shyama Sangeet. Customs vary by region and family.

Who is honoured on Kali Puja?

Kali. The night of Goddess Kali, also called Shyama Puja, on the new moon of Diwali: the great festival of that night in Bengal, Assam and Odisha. She is worshipped at midnight, as the Mother who destroyed the demon Raktabija and frees her children from fear.

Is Kali Puja on the same day as Diwali?

Usually, yes: both fall on the new moon of Kartika (Ashvina in the southern calendar). But they are set at different times of the night. Diwali’s Lakshmi Puja is kept on the day the new moon holds at dusk, Kali Puja on the day it holds at midnight. When the new moon begins late in the evening, Kali Puja comes a night earlier: in 2027 it is on 28 October and Diwali on 29 October.

What is the Kali Puja muhurat?

Nishita Kaal, the muhurta around the middle of the night, about fifty minutes long, while the new moon (Amavasya) holds. It depends on sunset and sunrise, so it changes from city to city: the time at the top of this page is for the city you pick.

Why is Goddess Kali worshipped on Diwali night?

The new moon of Kartika is the darkest night of the year, and Goddess Kali is the Mother of the dark: Time itself, in which every form begins and ends. She is worshipped at midnight on that night to cut away fear, evil and the ego, just as the lamps of Diwali drive back the dark outside.

How is Kali Puja different from Lakshmi Puja?

Across most of India, Diwali night is Lakshmi Puja, in the evening, for wealth and wellbeing. In Bengal, Assam and Odisha, Goddess Lakshmi is worshipped a fortnight earlier, on Kojagari Lakshmi Puja, the full moon of Sharad Purnima, and the Diwali new moon is kept for Goddess Kali at midnight. Some Bengali families also offer a small Lakshmi puja on Diwali evening.

Why are hibiscus flowers offered to Goddess Kali?

The red hibiscus, jaba in Bengali, is held to be her own flower: red, the colour of Shakti, her power. A garland of 108 red hibiscus flowers is the best-known offering of Kali Puja night.

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