Hanuman Jayanti
The birth of Hanuman — kept on the Chaitra full moon in the north and in Maharashtra, and on other days elsewhere.
Where it is kept North India and Maharashtra on Chaitra Purnima; Tamil Nadu on Margashirsha Amavasya; Karnataka and Andhra in Vaishakha; Odisha in Vaishakha.
When it falls
Computed from the Moon's elongation from the Sun. The civil day is the one carrying the tithi running at sunrise.
Overview
This site places Hanuman Jayanti on Chaitra Purnima, the full moon of Chaitra, which is the north Indian and Marathi reckoning. In Maharashtra the birth is marked at sunrise and the kirtan begins before dawn, ending at the moment of sunrise with the reading of the birth.
The observance is unusually plain: the Hanuman Chalisa or the Sundara Kanda is read, the image is given sindoor mixed with oil, and the offering is boondi or a laddu. There is no elaborate ritual apparatus, which is part of why the deity is the most widely worshipped in India outside the major temple traditions.
Where it comes from
The dating is genuinely contested. The Chaitra Purnima date follows the Valmiki Ramayana's account read through the north Indian tradition; the Tamil observance on Margashirsha Amavasya, the Kannada and Telugu on Vaishakha Krishna Dashami, and the Odia in Vaishakha all rest on their own regional authorities. There is no single correct answer, and a calendar claiming one is choosing a region without saying so.
Hanuman's rise from a figure in the Ramayana to an independently worshipped deity with his own temples is largely a development of the second millennium, carried by the Ramanandi order, by Tulsidas's Hanuman Chalisa in the sixteenth century, and in Maharashtra by Samarth Ramdas, who established a network of Maruti temples in the seventeenth.
Why it matters
Hanuman is invoked against Saturn's affliction — the Saturday association follows from a Puranic episode in which Shani is caught and released on terms — and for physical strength, courage and freedom from fear. This is why the observance is popular with wrestlers and akharas, and why the temples are so often attached to a gymnasium.
The Sundara Kanda, the fifth book of the Ramayana and the one in which Hanuman crosses to Lanka, is read in full on this day in many households; it is the section traditionally recited when something difficult has to be got through.
How to celebrate
- Read the Sundara Kanda or the Hanuman ChalisaThe reading is the observance; no priest is needed for either.
- Offer sindoor in oil, and boondi or a ladduThe vermilion-and-oil offering is the standard one, and has a story behind it in the Ramayana retellings.
- Keep the day simple and physical — exercise, service, hard workThe deity is associated with strength in service; the observance has always been practical.
- Begin the kirtan before dawn if you keep the Maharashtrian formThe birth is marked at the instant of sunrise there.
What to avoid
These are not all the same kind of thing. Some are prohibitions from a named text, some are Indian law, some are practical, and some are a confusion worth not repeating. Each item says which it is.
- Do not take meat or alcohol on this dayStandard for the observance, and strictly kept by regular devotees on Tuesdays and Saturdays as well.
- Do not assume every calendar agrees on the dateFour regional reckonings are in use. This site uses the north Indian Chaitra Purnima rule and says so.
- Do not offer the sindoor to a photograph or printThe oil-and-vermilion offering is made to a murti; the practice does not transfer.
Where this comes from
Everything above is either computed by this site’s own panchang engine, or drawn from the works listed here. Where a custom is modern, commercial or contested, the page says so rather than presenting it as ancient.
- Valmiki Ramayana, Sundara Kanda, for the narrative read on the day.
- Tulsidas, Hanuman Chalisa, sixteenth century, for the text most widely recited.
- The competing regional dates — Chaitra Purnima in the north and Maharashtra, Margashirsha Amavasya in Tamil Nadu, Vaishakha Krishna Dashami in Karnataka and Andhra — are reported as they stand; no tradition is authoritative over the others.
Dates are computed for the place named above and will differ elsewhere. Regional traditions vary; where two reckonings are in use, both are named rather than one being chosen silently.
Other festivals
All festivals, with dates for any year · The calendar on the home page