Sarva Pitru Amavasya
Mahalaya — the last day of the ancestral fortnight, on which shraddha is offered for every ancestor at once.
Where it is kept All India; in Bengal it is Mahalaya, the day the Durga Puja season is announced.
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
The closing day of Pitru Paksha, and the one that covers everyone: those whose date of death is not known, those who died by accident or violence, those with no descendant to perform the rite, and any ancestor missed during the fortnight. A person who can do only one shraddha in the year does it today.
In Bengal the same new moon is Mahalaya, when the goddess is invoked to begin her journey, and the pre-dawn radio broadcast of Mahishasuramardini — Birendra Krishna Bhadra's chandipath, recorded in 1931 and transmitted every year since — marks the start of the Durga Puja season.
Where it comes from
The provision for a single day covering all the ancestors is in the Dharmashastra literature and is a deliberate accommodation: the obligation is real, and the texts recognise that not everyone can meet it in its full form.
The Bengali Mahalaya broadcast is a twentieth-century institution with an exact date — All India Radio, then the Indian Broadcasting Company, first aired it in 1931. An attempt to replace Bhadra's recording with a new one in 1976 was abandoned after public objection, which is a small and well-documented piece of cultural history.
Why it matters
It is the safety net of the ancestral calendar. Everything the fortnight might have missed is gathered here, and that is why the crowds at Gaya, Prayagraj and the Godavari peak on this day.
The transition it marks is abrupt: the sixteen inauspicious days end at this new moon, and Navratri begins the following morning. The calendar moves straight from the dead to the Goddess.
How to celebrate
- Offer for every ancestor, named and unnamedThis is the day's specific provision.
- Offer for those who died without a descendant to remember themExplicitly included, and the reason the day exists in this form.
- Give food away — this is the substance of the riteThe feeding is not an accompaniment to the shraddha; it is the shraddha.
- Do the tarpana at a river or a tank if one is reachableThe customary setting, though not required.
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 skip it because you do not know the death datesThe whole purpose of the day is to cover exactly that case.
- Do not begin anything new until the fortnight has ended at this new moonNavratri opens the next morning; the prohibition holds until then.
- Do not treat the Bengali Mahalaya as the start of the puja itselfIt is the invocation; Durga Puja begins with Shashthi, five days later.
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.
- Garuda Purana and the Dharmashastra shraddha literature, for the provision covering all ancestors on the Amavasya.
- Devi Mahatmya, recited as the Mahishasuramardini chandipath at the Bengali Mahalaya.
- All India Radio's Mahalaya broadcast, first transmitted 1931 in Birendra Krishna Bhadra's recitation.
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