Bhoot Chaturdashi and haunted-place traditions in Bengal

Record summary

Bhoot Chaturdashi, observed around the Kali Puja period in Bengal, involves household practices concerning fourteen lamps, ancestors, spirits, and liminal nighttime conditions. During the requested period, newspapers, ethnographies, and festival reporting documented how the tradition shaped ideas about haunted spaces and the return of the dead. This is not a modern incident report but a cultural framework useful for comparing recurring South Asian spirit traditions with site-specific hauntings. Researchers should distinguish regional ritual practice, literary explanation, family custom, and later commercial “ghost” interpretations.