Festivals
Indian festivals — what they mark, and how they are kept
A year of festivals, explained for someone who has grown up around them and never been told what they are for.
7 pages
Most festival writing online is a list of things to buy and a paragraph of atmosphere. This section is built the other way round: what the day marks, who keeps it and how, what is actually done in the house, and where the practice differs once you cross a state line.
Dates here are computed for the year in question and checked against a printed panchang before they go up. Where a festival falls on two days because Smarta and Vaishnava traditions reckon it differently, both are given, and neither is called the correct one.
New to this? Start with these three
- DiwaliWhat Diwali actually commemorates, why the reason differs by region, what happens on each of the five days, and how the festival is kept in households outside India.
- NavratriWhat Navratri marks, and why Gujarat's garba, Bengal's Durga Puja and Tamil Nadu's golu are the same nine nights kept in entirely different ways.
- HoliHoli explained: the Holika bonfire the night before, what the colour is for, the Braj traditions behind it, and the parts of the festival that get uncomfortable.
Everything in Festivals
DiwaliWhat Diwali actually commemorates, why the reason differs by region, what happens on each of the five days, and how the festival is kept in households outside India.
NavratriWhat Navratri marks, and why Gujarat's garba, Bengal's Durga Puja and Tamil Nadu's golu are the same nine nights kept in entirely different ways.- HoliHoli explained: the Holika bonfire the night before, what the colour is for, the Braj traditions behind it, and the parts of the festival that get uncomfortable.
- Festival calendarWhy Indian festival dates move every year, how the lunisolar calendar works, and why two calendars can disagree in the same year.
Ganesh ChaturthiWhat happens across the ten days of Ganesh Chaturthi, why the public festival was built in the 1890s, and the immersion problem it now carries.
JanmashtamiWhy Janmashtami falls on two different days, what happens at midnight, and how the festival differs between Mathura, Maharashtra and the south.- Maha ShivaratriWhat Maha Shivaratri marks, why it is kept as a night vigil in four watches, what is offered on the linga, and how observance differs by region.
Questions people ask
Why do Indian festival dates change every year?
Most are set by a lunisolar calendar, so they move against the Gregorian one. A festival falls on the same lunar day each year — the same tithi — which lands on a different date in March or October each time. Some also differ by region, because the month is reckoned from the new moon in the south and the full moon in the north.
Which festival should someone start with?
Diwali, because more of the year's other observances make sense once you understand it — the lunar reckoning, the household ritual, and the way one festival means different things in Bengal, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu.
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