Thirteen Festivals : A Ritual Year in Bengal

an expression common among Bengali Hindus says twelve months there are thirteen festivals. While each of these occasions is built around the worship of a particular God or goddess, they are also performances where setting, attire, ornamentation, recitation, music, and sometimes theatre are brought together. Thirteen dramatically understated the number of such occasions around the year. Previous books in this series have described and analyses the axial rituals in the annual cycle in the village of kelomal, purba medinipur, West Bengal. These are the famous Sanskritic Durga puja, the high point of the autumn in Bengal, and the less well known Vernacular Spring ritual of gajan, devoted to Siva. The present work deals with the great variety of rituals that take place during the Remainder of the year, including worship of sitala, goddess of disease and mother of the village; man as a, goddess of snakes; Laksmi, embodiment of prosperity dwelling in the rice crop; Krsna, who offers the possibility of liberation; Satya Narayan, who has a Muslim personality as Satya pir; and the goddesses worshipped by women within the house: sasthi, goddess of children; The auspicious Mangal candi; and bipattarini, who saves people from danger.