Calcuttans believe that Goddess Durga comes to the city during the Durga Puja, and this is the festival of Bengal that is observed with utmost vigor and fervor. The joi de vivere of Bengal overflows during this festival that takes place in December, worth a visit. Book Fairs and Food Festival come to Calcutta in winter. 

The  other festive  weak of Calcutta is  from Christmas to the New Year, where, the city lapses into colonial nostalgia and relives a bittersweet past. At Shantiniketan is the Paus Mela, falling in the fourth week of December, the winter festival, which attracts domestic as well as international tourists, The other festival of gaiety at Shantiniketan is the "dol", (Holi festival), the festival of spring and color, falling in March. 

The birth anniversary celebrations of Nobel laureate litterateur Rabindra Nath Tagore, falling the second week of May, is also observed with deserving pomp and gaiety. Though the birth date of Rabindranath falls on May 8-9, the anniversary as well as the Bengali New Year is celebrated on the first day of the Bengali New Year (mid April). Id-ul-Fitr, the Muslim religious festival celebration is observed with as much pomp and pageantry as
Christmas and New Year.

Book fair
The Book Fair is a splendid affair of Calcutta. This is one of the major book fairs in the world, boasting a collection of wide range of subjects on anything from the kindergarten rhymes and fairy tales to the spots on Proxima. The fair is camped annually in the vast Maidan in Esplanade in the Central Calcutta. Calcutta, the city that survives on books and wisdom can never stop the spirit of avid book-lovers.