Also known as: Shivaratri, Mahashivratri, Herath (Kashmir) · Observed: Across India and Nepal
Significance of Maha Shivaratri
Maha Shivaratri, the great night of Shiva, is the most important festival in the Shaiva calendar. While every month has a Shivaratri on the fourteenth night of the dark fortnight, the one in the late winter month of Magha or Phalguna is the greatest. Devotees fast through the day, keep awake through the night in worship and meditation, and perform abhisheka of the Shiva linga at each of the four watches of the night. The night is regarded as especially favourable for spiritual practice, when inner stillness and devotion bear their greatest fruit.
Shivaratri is a festival of inward focus rather than outward celebration: it calls devotees to overcome ignorance, symbolised by darkness, through wakefulness and the remembrance of Shiva.
Legends of Shivaratri
The Shiva Purana tells that Brahma and Vishnu once disputed which of them was greater. A boundless pillar of fire appeared between them, and they agreed that whoever found its end would be supreme. Vishnu as a boar dug downward and Brahma as a swan flew upward, but neither found an end. Shiva then emerged from the pillar, revealing himself as the infinite reality beyond both; this manifestation, the Lingodbhava, is said to have occurred at midnight on Shivaratri.
Other traditions celebrate the night as the wedding of Shiva and Parvati, or as the night Shiva drank the halahala poison from the churning of the ocean to save the world, becoming Nilakantha. A beloved story tells of a hunter who, lost in the forest at night, climbed a bilva tree to escape wild animals. Restless and hungry, he plucked leaves that fell on a linga beneath the tree and drops from his water pouch fell with them. Unknowingly he had fasted, kept vigil and worshipped Shiva, and he attained liberation.
How Maha Shivaratri Is Observed
Devotees bathe early, often in a river, visit Shiva temples and fast, some without water. The linga is bathed with milk, curd, honey, ghee, sugar, water and coconut water, and offered bilva leaves, datura, white flowers and vibhuti. The panchakshari mantra, Om Namah Shivaya, and the Rudram are chanted through the night, and many temples conduct four prahara pujas. The fast is broken the next morning after sunrise.
Pilgrims crowd the Jyotirlinga temples such as Kashi Vishwanath, Somnath, Mahakaleshwar, Srisailam and Kedarnath, and the Pancharama and Srikalahasti temples in Andhra Pradesh. In Nepal, Pashupatinath hosts vast gatherings of sadhus. Mandi in Himachal Pradesh holds a week-long fair of village deities, and Kashmiri Pandits celebrate the festival as Herath, worshipping Shiva in the form of a vessel of water and walnuts.
How the Date Is Determined
Maha Shivaratri is the Chaturdashi, the fourteenth tithi, of the dark fortnight in Magha in the amanta calendar, which is Phalguna Krishna Chaturdashi in the purnimanta calendar. The decisive time is nishita kala, the midnight period of about forty-eight minutes when the Lingodbhava took place. The festival is fixed on the night when Chaturdashi prevails during nishita. If it covers nishita on two nights or neither, almanacs apply further rules, generally preferring the night that includes Chaturdashi at midnight.
Rituals and customs
- Fasting through the day and night
- Abhisheka of the linga with milk, curd, honey, ghee and water
- Offering bilva leaves, datura and vibhuti
- Night-long vigil with four prahara pujas
- Chanting Om Namah Shivaya and the Rudram
- Breaking the fast after sunrise the next day