In Bengal, Kali worship was transformed from a fierce, appeasement-based practice into something intimate and devotional largely through the Shakta Bhakti tradition — and specifically through the 18th-century saint-poet Ramprasad Sen. Ramprasad's Shyama Sangeet — devotional songs to Kali — reframed the relationship between worshipper and goddess entirely. Instead of fear, Ramprasad brought complaint, tenderness, and a kind of devoted argument. His songs spoke to Kali as a child speaks to an imperfect but beloved mother: *You don't provide for me the way other mothers do, but I still love you, and I'm not going anywhere.* This irreverence from a place of complete devotion is distinctly Bengali.

Ramakrishna Paramahamsa (1836–1886), the great 19th-century mystic of Dakshineswar, experienced Kali not as a symbol or a concept but as a living mother. His relationship with the goddess — his conversations with her, his grief when he couldn't see her, his experience of her as the totality of the universe — transformed how educated Bengal thought about devotion. Through his disciple Swami Vivekananda, this understanding spread globally.

The community Kali Puja as a large-scale public event was popularised by Raja Krishnachandra of Nadia in the 18th century, who patronised large outdoor pujas in the same community format that would later become the Sarbojanin model for Durga Puja.

On Bhoot Chaturdashi, fourteen earthen lamps (Choddo Prodip) are lit at dusk in every room and corner of the house. The fourteen lamps represent fourteen generations of ancestors whose souls are believed to visit the home on this night. The Chaturdashi night is liminal — between the living and the dead — and the lamps guide the ancestral souls and also ward off malevolent spirits who roam freely on this night. In 2026, Bhoot Chaturdashi falls on Saturday, November 7 — the evening before Kali Puja.

Kali Puja itself is performed at midnight — the Nishith Kaal, the dead of night, when the Amavasya is at its peak. The idol is revealed by the priest. The puja includes specific offerings unusual in mainstream Hindu worship: red hibiscus flowers, fish, meat, rice wine in some traditions. The midnight hour, the black idol against the lamplight, the fireworks breaking the silence — Kali Puja at midnight is an experience unlike anything else in the Bengali festival calendar.

In Kolkata, the public Kali Puja pandals rival Durga Puja in scale and creativity. The Kalighat temple — home to one of the 51 Shakti Peethas, where Sati's right toe fell — draws enormous crowds on Kali Puja night. Other famous Kali temples: Dakshineswar (Ramakrishna's temple), Tarapith, Belur Math.