Maha Shivaratri
The great night of Shiva — the fourteenth tithi of dark Phalguna, kept awake through four watches.
Where it is kept All India, and Nepal; the twelve jyotirlingas, Pashupatinath, and every Shiva temple in the country.
When it falls
Computed from the Moon's elongation from the Sun. The civil day is the one carrying the tithi running at Nishita Kaal, local midnight.
Overview
The observance is a night, not a day. The fast runs through the daylight hours and the night is kept awake in four prahars, with an abhisheka in each — water, milk, curd, honey, ghee and sugar poured over the linga, with bilva leaves, in the four watches from dusk to dawn.
This site places it by Nishita Kaal, the midnight window, which is the rule the nibandha literature gives: the Chaturdashi must be current at that hour. Calendars using a sunrise rule can differ by a day.
Where it comes from
Several accounts are attached to the night. The Shiva Purana gives the appearance of the infinite linga of fire between Brahma and Vishnu, neither of whom could find its end. Another has Shiva drinking the halahala poison at the churning of the ocean and the gods keeping vigil through the night for him.
The best-known popular story is the hunter's: a man treed overnight by a beast, dropping bilva leaves onto a linga below without knowing it, and fasting and waking without meaning to. The point of it is that the observance worked anyway, which is a statement about the night rather than about the hunter.
Why it matters
It is the one major Hindu observance whose entire structure is nocturnal, and the four-prahar form gives it a shape most festivals do not have — four distinct services, each with its own offering and mantra.
Twelve jyotirlingas and every ordinary Shiva temple keep the same night, and the bilva leaf offering is the same in all of them. It is the least stratified of the major festivals in practice.
How to celebrate
- Keep the fast through the day and the vigil through the nightThe jagarana across four prahars is the observance.
- Do the abhisheka in each of the four watchesWater, milk, curd, honey, ghee, sugar — the panchamrita — poured in sequence.
- Offer bilva leaves, three lobes to a stem, unbrokenThe prescribed offering; the three lobes are the reason.
- Break the fast the next morning after the Chaturdashi has passedThe parana follows the night, not the midnight puja.
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 offer tulsi, ketaki flowers or turmeric to the lingaAll three are specifically excluded in the Shiva Purana — ketaki because of the false witness it gave in the linga story.
- Do not sleep through the night if you have taken the vigilThe waking is the vrat.
- Do not pour milk in quantity over a temple linga where it is discouragedMany temples now ask for water; the waste at large shrines runs to thousands of litres and the drainage cannot take it.
- Do not assume the date without checking the Nishita ruleWhere the Chaturdashi begins late, sunrise-rule and midnight-rule calendars differ.
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.
- Shiva Purana, Vidyeshvara Samhita, for the linga of fire and the exclusion of the ketaki flower.
- Shiva Purana, Koti Rudra Samhita, for the four-prahar puja and the hunter's story.
- Nirnayasindhu, for the Nishita-vyapini rule fixing the civil day.
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