Maha Saptami Festival The seventh day, on which the puja proper begins.
The name
The same day, written in each of the six scripts this app keeps
- English
- Maha Saptami
- हिन्दी
- महासप्तमी
- বাংলা
- মহাসপ্তমী
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 seventh day, on which the puja proper begins. Before dawn the nabapatrika, nine plants bound together around a banana stem, is carried to the river, bathed, dressed in a red-bordered sari and set at Ganesha's right; the nine plants are the nine forms of the goddess as the field and the garden know her. The pran pratishtha follows and the first pushpanjali is offered.
- Deity
- Durga, Nabapatrika, Ganesha
- Kind
- Festival Days of celebration: the house is decorated, a feast is cooked and the temple is visited.
The hour
The rule in words
Ashwin Shukla Saptami at sunrise; the nabapatrika snan is at first light and the anjali in the morning.
The fast
Those who keep the puja fast until the morning anjali. The bhog of khichuri, labra, chutney and payesh is offered at midday and eaten by everyone.
Where the regions differ
Bengal, Assam, Odisha and Tripura bathe the nabapatrika; the north and the Deccan keep the same tithi as the seventh night of Navratri without it, and Nepal receives the same nine plants from Gorkha as the phulpati. The kola bou, the banana bride, is popularly taken for Ganesha's wife, though the ritual itself calls her the nabapatrika.
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.