Gokulashtami Festival The birth of Krishna at midnight in the prison at Mathura.
The name
The same day, written in each of the six scripts this app keeps
- English
- Gokulashtami
- मराठी
- गोकुळाष्टमी · कृष्ण जन्माष्टमी
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 birth of Krishna at midnight in the prison at Mathura. The image of the infant is bathed, put in a cradle and rocked at the stroke of midnight, and the conch is blown; Mathura and Vrindavan keep it largest, and Maharashtra keeps the dahi handi the next day, when human pyramids break a pot of curd hung high in the street.
- Deity
- Krishna
- 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 Ashtami holding the sunrise, the Vaishnava reckoning (the day the central government gazettes and Mathura and Vrindavan keep), with a day that also carries Rohini preferred. The abhishekam and the cradle are at nishita, true midnight, the hour of the birth; households following the Smarta rule take the day whose midnight the Ashtami covers, which is a day earlier when the tithi begins late in the evening, as it did in 2025. Maharashtra keeps that Smarta night as Gokulashtami, with Dahi Handi the morning after. The parana follows the next morning.
The fast
A full fast through the day, broken after the midnight puja. Butter, makhan-mishri, panjiri and the flattened rice Krishna is fond of are offered.
Where the regions differ
The north calls it Bhadrapada Krishna Ashtami and the south Shravana Krishna Ashtami: the purnimanta month runs one ahead in the dark fortnight and it is the same night. Kerala keeps it as Ashtami Rohini, looking for the Ashtami that meets Rohini, so its date can differ by a day. Vaishnava and smarta almanacs can also differ by a day on whether Rohini must be present. Bengal follows it with Nandotsav the next day, and the Assamese namghar sings the naam through the night. Maharashtra calls the night Gokulashtami and follows it with the Dahi Handi, when the govindas break the pot of curd strung across the street.
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.