Basanti Puja begins Festival The spring Durga Puja, kept from the Shashthi to the Dashami of the bright fortnight of Chaitra.
The name
The same day, written in each of the six scripts this app keeps
- English
- Basanti Puja begins
- हिन्दी
- बासंती पूजा
- বাংলা
- বাসন্তী পূজা আরম্ভ
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 spring Durga Puja, kept from the Shashthi to the Dashami of the bright fortnight of Chaitra. It is the older of the two: the autumn puja is the akal bodhan, the untimely waking that Rama is said to have made before crossing to Lanka, and this is the one the shastra appoints. It is kept quietly now, in family houses and a few old bonedi bari, rather than in the street pandals of Ashwin.
- Deity
- Durga, Basanti
- Kind
- Festival Days of celebration: the house is decorated, a feast is cooked and the temple is visited.
The hour
The rule in words
Chaitra Shukla Shashthi at sunrise for the bodhon; the puja runs on to the Dashami as it does in autumn.
The fast
Those who keep it fast until the anjali of each morning. The bhog is khichuri, labra and payesh, offered and then eaten by everyone who comes.
Where the regions differ
Bengal keeps Basanti Puja; the same nine nights are Chaitra Navratri in the north and Vasantha Navaratri in the Deccan, both ending at Ram Navami. Traditions vary on whether a family keeps the spring puja, the autumn one or both.
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.