Ghentu Puja 2012 date

Ghentu Puja is a Bengali festival held on the last day of Phalguna (February and March). Ghontu is an inferior deity, the god of itch and other skin diseases. Crookes gives the following account of the festival:

“The scene of the service is a dunghill. A broken earthenware pot, the bottom blackened by constant use for cooking, daubed white with lime, interspersed with a few streaks of turmeric, together with a bunch or two of the ghentu plant, and last not least, a broomstick of the genuine palmyra or cocoanut stock, serve as the representation of the presiding deity of itch. The mistress of the family, for whose benefit the work is done, acts as priestess. After a few doggerel lines are recited, the pot is broken and the pieces collected by the children, who sing songs about the itch godling."