Vasant Panchami
The fifth tithi of bright Magha — Saraswati Puja, the first day of spring, and the day a child is started on letters.
Where it is kept Bengal, Bihar, Odisha, Assam and Uttar Pradesh as Saraswati Puja; Punjab and Rajasthan as Basant, the kite festival.
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
Spring is declared here rather than at the equinox: the mustard is in flower across the northern plain, yellow is worn, and yellow food is eaten. In Bengal, Bihar and Odisha the day is Saraswati Puja, the largest school and college festival of the year, and the image is installed in the classroom.
It is the standard day for Vidyarambham or Akshar Abhyasam — a child's first letters, traced with a finger in rice or on a slate. Instruments and books are placed before the image and not used until the puja is done.
Where it comes from
Saraswati is a Rigvedic river before she is a goddess of learning, and the transition is visible in the texts themselves. The association of this tithi with her, and with the start of spring, is Puranic.
The kite flying of Punjab and Rajasthan is a regional custom of the same day. The Basant of Lahore and Amritsar is documented from at least the eighteenth century; it has since been restricted or banned in parts of Pakistan after deaths caused by glass- and metal-coated string.
Why it matters
It is the day the academic and artistic year is blessed, and in Bengal and Bihar the school observance is genuinely universal — the puja is held in the institution, by the students.
It also opens the run to Holi: the Holika pyre is traditionally begun on this day in parts of the north, with wood added to it over the following forty days.
How to celebrate
- Place books and instruments before the image and leave them until the puja is completeThe same abstention as at Ayudha Puja.
- Start a child on their first lettersAkshar Abhyasam is kept on this tithi across much of India.
- Wear yellow and offer yellow flowers and foodThe colour of the mustard fields and of the day.
- Offer the season's first fruit and the berCustomary; the jujube is the season's fruit in the north.
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 use manja coated with glass or metal for kitesIt cuts throats — of people on motorcycles and of birds — and is banned by the National Green Tribunal in India. Use plain cotton string.
- Do not read or use the books you have offered before the puja endsThe abstention is the rite.
- Do not fly kites near power lines or from an unprotected roof edgeThe two causes of the annual casualty figures, alongside the string.
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.
- Rigveda, for Saraswati as a river; the Puranas for her identification with learning and this tithi.
- Devi Bhagavata Purana, for the Vasant Panchami Saraswati worship.
- National Green Tribunal order of 2017 prohibiting nylon, synthetic and glass-coated manja in India.
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