Bandi Chhor Divas Festival The day of the release of the prisoners, on which Guru Hargobind, the sixth Guru, walked out of the fort at Gwalior where Jahangir had held him and brought fifty-two rajas out with him, each holding a tassel of his cloak.
The name
The same day, written in each of the six scripts this app keeps
- English
- Bandi Chhor Divas
- हिन्दी
- बंदी छोड़ दिवस
- ਪੰਜਾਬੀ
- ਬੰਦੀ ਛੋੜ ਦਿਵਸ
Only the names actually in use are listed. A blank script is not an omission: the day may simply not be kept there, or be kept under a different festival's name.
UTC+5:30
The date of a festival depends on the place: a tithi that ends at dusk in Chennai can still be running at dusk a thousand kilometres west, which moves the day. Sunrise and sunset here are computed for the place above.
When it falls next
Looking for the calendar this day belongs to
This day does not fall again in the next three years at this place. A few days are tied to the solar month rather than to the civil year, so a year can hold two of them or none.
What the day is
The day of the release of the prisoners, on which Guru Hargobind, the sixth Guru, walked out of the fort at Gwalior where Jahangir had held him and brought fifty-two rajas out with him, each holding a tassel of his cloak. He reached Amritsar on the Kartik new moon and the Harmandir Sahib was lit for him; it is lit again every year, and the lamps are doubled in the water of the sarovar. Sikhs keep the day for the freedom of conscience it stands for rather than for the Diwali the rest of the country keeps that night.
- Deity
- Guru Hargobind
- Kind
- Festival Days of celebration: the house is decorated, a feast is cooked and the temple is visited.
The hour
The rule in words
The Kartik Amavasya prevailing at pradosha, the two hours and twenty-four minutes after sunset, because the lamps are lit that evening.
The fast
No fast is kept. The langar runs through the day and the deg of karah prasad is given out after the evening diwan.
Where the regions differ
Amritsar keeps the largest, with the fireworks over the sarovar, and every gurdwara lights the same evening. The north keeps the night as Diwali, Bengal as Kali Puja and Nepal as Laxmi Puja, and all of them are the one new moon.
Fixing a day for it
The muhurtham rules that go with this festival
A temple visit, or the first darshan at a new temple. No weekday is ruled out: Tuesday belongs to Murugan and the Amman, Saturday to Perumal and Sani, so the day usually follows the deity rather than the almanac. Ashtami and Chaturdasi are the two tithis held back for darshan, with the standing exceptions of Sivaratri on Krishna Chaturdasi and Kala Bhairava Ashtami, which are kept on those very days. Rahu kaal, Yamaganda and Gulika kaal are not scored here; the panchangam page prints them for the day you pick, and most families simply wait them out.
Every date here is computed from the Sun and Moon for the place entered, by the rule printed beside it. A printed panchangam can differ by a day where an almanac reads a tithi at a different instant, and a family's own custom always comes first. Where the practice genuinely varies, the text says so rather than choosing for you.