Religion is not constant across the globe; instead, some traditional celebrations often form a part of it as it mixes with the local culture. Kolkata has a small Christian community, and within that, there is also another smaller community known as the Bengali Christians. This smaller community of Christians have people with surnames such as Chatterjee, Banerjee, Mukherjee, Das, Biswas, Sarkar, etc. This particular group of Christians in the city and the suburbs have seamlessly adopted various local traditions along with Christianity, and amongst these is the street kirtan during Good Friday, which is also known as Goja Kirtan.
Kirtans are common amongst Hindus and Sikhs, and since these Bengali Christians adopted Christianity, they have adopted the Kirtan singing as a part of prayer and celebrations. These Christian Kirtan singing consists of praise to Christ and often narrates various parables and stories from the Bible. These would often be sung by a group of people singing one line and then other people repeating. Along with the vocals, there would be musical instruments such as Harmonium, Khol (traditional drums) and Kortal (traditional metal cymbals).
In suburbs and villages that have a substantial Christian population, we get to see night-long Christian Kirtan singing. The singing style and the tunes are almost the same as what we get to hear during Hindu festivals. I remember during the 1980’s, once such a Kirtan was organised at our local church in Ballygunge, where the Kirtan singers had come from the villages of 24 Parganas.
There is one particular church which I am a part of known as Osmond Memorial Church (Part of Church of North India – Calcutta Diocese), which has a unique Good Friday tradition that is on the day of Good Friday, a unique procession is organised, which travels on foot from S. N. Banerjee Road (Osmond Memorial Church) to Kamardanga. At Kamardanga, there is a large Christian compound where the procession culminates.
This tradition was in its 117th year in 2026, with only a gap during the time of the pandemic and during WWII. The same route and the same style of singing have been carried on for over a century.
During this procession, the people join in singing Christian kirtans and at the front, there is a large wooden cross carried by a member of the procession. Usually, the person carrying the cross does it barefoot, and this cross is transferred from one person to another like an Olympic torch. The cross, which is nearly six feet high, is decorated with fresh flowers.
Good Friday Kirtan Procession At Kolkata
As the procession moves from one locality to another, there are people who join the group, and slowly the size increases.
There are usually two stops in the route, the first one being St. George’s Church, located near CIT Road, Ananda Palit. Here, the local church members wait for the procession to arrive, and once they do, they are served with water and sherbets (flavoured water or fruit juice infused water). The procession takes a few minutes’ break and then proceeds towards Kamardanga, crossing the CIT Road and taking the Pottery Road.
There is a flyover above the railway lines, and out here, there is also a short second stopover. The local Christian community usually serves the procession goers with buns, candies and sherbets.
Crossing the bridge, one would reach the Kamardanga Christian Compound, which is also an extended part of Osmond Memorial Church. Here, there is an open field where the members of the procession come and gather. By this time, more people from the localities have also joined the event.
A small stage is present from where the members of the procession are thanked, and after a final prayer, the event ends. It’s a somewhat traditional practice that not only the local Christian community members but also members of the Hindu and Muslim communities join in, and so do the local municipal councillors.
The end of the event is what is the most significant one, as this is the time when Gojas are distributed. Goja is basically a type of sweetmeat made of gram flours fried in rectangular bars and then dipped in sugar syrup. This tradition, which as mentioned earlier is over a 100 years and the procession is also popularly referred to as the “Goja Kirtan”.
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