📅 Calendar
Festivals, fasting days and observances across the four traditions.
A japa mala has 108 beads; the classical Upanishads number 108; sun salutations are counted in 108s. One old reckoning: the sun's distance from earth is ~108 sun-diameters, the moon's ~108 moon-diameters — the cosmos hidden in a string of beads.
Victory of Rama over Ravana; effigies burn at dusk.
Broken on sighting the moon through a sieve.
🍃 Married women fast from sunrise until moonrise.
The festival of lights — Lakshmi is welcomed into lamp-lit homes.
Guru Hargobind’s release from Gwalior — the Golden Temple is lit.
Ancient sun worship at the riverbank.
🍃 36-hour nirjala fast; offerings to the setting and rising sun.
Birth of Guru Nanak — Akhand Path and nagar kirtan processions.
The sun enters Makara — kite-flying, til-gud sweets, harvest thanks.
Saraswati puja — books and instruments are honoured; yellow is worn.
The great night of Shiva.
🍃 Many keep a full-day fast and a night-long vigil with Om Namah Shivaya.
Bonfires mark the burning of Holika — evil consumed, Prahlada saved.
The festival of colours — Krishna’s playful spring.
Nine nights of the Goddess (spring).
🍃 Nine days of satvik food or fruit fasts for many devotees.
Birth of Lord Rama.
🍃 Some fast until noon, the hour of Rama’s birth.
Birth of Mahavira, the 24th Tirthankara.
Birth of Hanuman — Hanuman Chalisa recitations.
Birth of the Khalsa (1699) and the spring harvest.
Birth, awakening and parinirvana of the Buddha, all on one full moon.
Martyrdom of the fifth Guru — chabeel (sweet water) is served.
Sisters tie rakhi; brothers vow protection. (Aug 27 has Bhadra kaal — inauspicious — so it shifts to the 28th.)
Birth of Krishna. (ISKCON and some Vaishnava temples observe it a day later, Sep 5.)
🍃 Fast until midnight — the hour of Krishna’s birth.
Ends with Samvatsari (Sep 15) and "Micchami Dukkadam".
🍃 Eight days of fasting, study and forgiveness — the holiest Jain season.
Ganesha is welcomed home for ten days.
The day of universal forgiveness — Micchami Dukkadam.
Nine nights of the Goddess (autumn).
🍃 Nine days of fasting for many; garba and Durga puja each night.
Victory of Rama over Ravana; effigies burn at dusk.
Broken on sighting the moon through a sieve.
🍃 Married women fast from sunrise until moonrise.
The festival of lights — Lakshmi is welcomed into lamp-lit homes.
Guru Hargobind’s release from Gwalior — the Golden Temple is lit.
Ancient sun worship at the riverbank.
🍃 36-hour nirjala fast; offerings to the setting and rising sun.
Birth of Guru Nanak — Akhand Path and nagar kirtan processions.
Lunar dates shift each year and can vary by a day between regions and panchang schools — always confirm important observances with your local temple, gurdwara, vihara or derasar.