Krishna Janmashtami

Krishna was born, according to tradition, at midnight on the eighth day of the dark fortnight, under the Rohini nakshatra. In the Purnimanta calendar of North India this Ashtami falls in Bhadrapada; in the Amanta calendar of the South and West it falls in Shravana. The date is the same; only the month name differs.

Panchangs look for Ashtami tithi at Nishita kaal (midnight), and treat its combination with Rohini as especially sacred, called Jayanti. Because the tithi and nakshatra do not always coincide, Janmashtami is often listed on two consecutive days: the first for Smarta householders, the second for Vaishnava communities, who generally follow the Ashtami prevailing at sunrise and avoid an Ashtami joined to Saptami. ISKCON publishes its own date. In Kerala, Ashtami Rohini is fixed by the solar month of Chingam and the Rohini star, so it can fall on a different day again.

The Bhagavata Purana (Book 10, chapters 1–3) tells the story most fully. The tyrant Kamsa of Mathura heard a heavenly voice announce that the eighth child of his sister Devaki would kill him. He imprisoned Devaki and her husband Vasudeva and killed their children one by one. The seventh, Balarama, was transferred to the womb of Rohini in Gokul.

When the eighth child was due, the night was dark and heavy with rain. At midnight, Krishna appeared before his parents in his four-armed form as Vishnu, then became an ordinary infant. The prison doors opened, the guards slept, and Vasudeva carried the baby in a basket across the flooded Yamuna, which parted for him, while the serpent Shesha sheltered the child with his hoods. In Gokul he exchanged the boy for the newborn daughter of Nanda and Yashoda, and returned. When Kamsa tried to kill the girl, she slipped from his hands and rose into the sky as the Goddess Yogamaya, warning him that his destroyer was already born.

Krishna grew up in Gokul and Vrindavan as Nanda and Yashoda's beloved son, the butter thief and cowherd whose childhood leelas are the subject of countless songs.

Customs vary by region and sampradaya. A common household pattern:

The Janmashtami fast is kept from sunrise to midnight or to the next morning. Some devotees keep it nirjala; most take fruit, milk, and fasting foods such as makhana, sabudana, singhara or kuttu, with rock salt. Grains and pulses are avoided, and the day is spent in remembrance, kirtan and reading. Many keep a waking vigil until the birth. The old, sick, pregnant women and children are encouraged to keep a lighter, fruit-based fast.

The Bhagavata Purana describes the moment of birth with the image of the full moon rising in the east. And in the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna explains why he takes birth at all.

Mathura, Krishna's birthplace, and Vrindavan celebrate with jhankis, raslila performances and midnight darshan that draw pilgrims from across the world, followed next day by Nandotsav, the celebration of Nanda's joy. In Maharashtra, the next day is Gopalkala, when teams (govindas) build human pyramids to break a pot of curd hung high above the street in Dahi Handi, recalling the child Krishna stealing butter. Gujarat celebrates at Dwarka and with Krishna's swing in every temple. Udupi in Karnataka and Guruvayur in Kerala hold grand festivals, with Kerala's Ashtami Rohini marked by processions of children dressed as Krishna. In Manipur the Vaishnava tradition celebrates with Ras dances. Odisha and Bengal honour the day with fasting and Bhagavata reading, and ISKCON temples worldwide hold all-day kirtan.

Krishna's favourites fill the bhog: makhan-mishri (butter and rock sugar), panjiri made of roasted coriander or wheat flour with ghee and dry fruit, panchamrit, dhaniya pag, and in some homes the 56-dish chhappan bhog. In the South, homes make seedai, murukku, aval payasam and appam, and draw tiny footprints of the infant Krishna walking in from the door to the puja room. Children are dressed as Krishna and Radha, and the swinging of the cradle at midnight is often given to the eldest and youngest in the family.

Janmashtami is a festival of hope born in the darkest hour. Krishna arrives in a prison, at midnight, in a storm, under the shadow of a tyrant, and yet the doors open and the river makes way. For devotees the night is both a joyful birthday and a reminder of the Gita's promise that the divine enters the world whenever dharma is threatened. It also honours the love of Yashoda and the simple people of Gokul, showing that God can be cherished as a child to be fed, sung to and rocked to sleep.