Bhoot Chaturdashi - the eastern rituals
History and evolution of mankind often throw interesting facts that time has the tenacity to add various ritual of different times and all the practices gets into the multiple narratives of the same pagan festivity. On the day preceding the Amabashya night falls the Chaturdashi (14th day) of the Krishna Paksha in the Vikram Samvat Hindu calendar month of Kartika and this festivity is celebrated all through the eastern provinces of South Asia - the Hindu families pay obeisance to their ancestors and Bengali Hindus observe the day as Bhut Chaturdashi. When we were kids, we heard from the elders that ghosts become active on this night - the night preceding the day of Amavasya ( preceding day of the no-moon night). So all homes have to light ritualistic fourteen lamps and place it on the key passages of our home, the doors, the windows, especially the main entrance door. And the ancillary ritual of mandatory cooking together of the prescribed fourteen types of fresh vegetable