Kartik Puja In Bengal On Kartik Sankranti Day - The Sacred Celebration of Prosperity - Harvest - Fertility
Kartik Puja in Bengal: Honoring the Guardian of Harvest and Fertility
The Significance of Kartik Puja
Kartik Puja, observed on Kartik Sankranti, the concluding day of the Bengali month of Kartik, is one of the most culturally rich and spiritually profound festivals in Bengal. Kartik Puja 2025 date is November 17.
This day is devoted to Lord Kartikeya, the son of Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvati, who is revered as the deity of crops, fertility, and protection. While Kartikeya is worshipped across India in diverse forms—such as Murugan in Tamil Nadu and Subramanya in Karnataka—in Bengal, his worship takes on a unique agrarian and familial dimension.
Known as “Kartik Thakur” in Bengal, the deity is seen as a divine guardian of farmers’ fields and as the protector of children. The festival marks the culmination of the harvest season, symbolizing gratitude to nature and divine forces for fertility, abundance, and sustenance.
Rituals and Observances
In Bengal, devotees perform Kartik Puja with deep devotion and simplicity. The rituals usually begin early in the morning, with families cleaning their homes and decorating the altar with flowers, oil lamps, and earthen diyas. A small clay image of Lord Kartik is worshipped with offerings that reflect the harvest season. Earthen pots filled with uncooked rice, pulses, dried fruits, and nuts are offered to the deity as symbols of agricultural prosperity.
Women often fast on this day, praying for the welfare of their families, the protection of their children, and good fortune. The puja concludes with the lighting of lamps and community prayers, celebrating the union of human effort and divine grace in ensuring the sustenance of life.
The Bangal Tradition: Kartik Puja and the Lakshmi Sara
Among the Bangal community—people from the regions of erstwhile East Bengal, especially Faridpur—Kartik Puja includes a beautiful folk custom linked to the agrarian cycle. On Durga Puja Dashami, they sow paddy seeds in the Lakshmi sara, an earthen platter used in the previous year’s Kojagari Lakshmi Puja. These seeds are carefully watered each day throughout the month of Kartik, symbolizing nurture and growth.
On Kartik Sankranti, marking the end of the month, five small ghats (earthen pots) are placed upon the same platter. These are filled with atapa rice (sun-dried rice), decorated with dried nuts, covered with a gamchha (thin towel), and offered to Lord Kartik. This ritual embodies the belief that the crops in the field are akin to children, nurtured with love, prayer, and protection. Thus, Kartik Thakur becomes both a divine protector of fertility and a guardian of offspring.
Symbolism and Spiritual Meaning
The rituals of Kartik Puja are rich in symbolism. The earthen pots represent the earth itself—the womb of creation—while the rice and dried fruits signify nourishment and abundance. The act of sowing and watering seeds throughout the month reminds devotees of the virtues of patience, perseverance, and faith.
Scripturally, Kartikeya is described as a commander of the divine armies and a symbol of valor and purity. In the Skanda Purana, it is said, “He who meditates on Kartikeya, resplendent and youthful, is freed from fear and attains divine strength” (Skanda Purana, Section 3, Chapter 5). This verse captures the essence of Kartik Puja in Bengal—devotion to the divine force that sustains courage, prosperity, and protection in every household.
Kartik Sankranti and the Cycle of Renewal
Kartik Sankranti, marking the end of the harvest season, also symbolizes transition and renewal. It is believed that after this day, the deities retire for a period of rest, and human beings must reflect on gratitude and self-discipline. In Bengal’s spiritual ethos, Kartik Puja thus stands as a bridge between the material and the spiritual, where devotion to God aligns with reverence for nature and the cycles of life.
Final Thoughts
Kartik Puja in Bengal is not just a ritual; it is a living expression of faith, fertility, and continuity. It celebrates the sacred bond between humanity and the natural world, between parents and children, and between effort and divine blessing. In every earthen lamp lit on this day and every seed nurtured with love, the people of Bengal express their timeless faith that the divine continues to protect and nourish life in all its forms.