Latitude, longitude and time zone 13.08, 80.27
Asia/Kolkata · UTC+5:30
The date of a festival depends on the place.
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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
Maharashtra calendar, computed for Chennai
- Tuesday, 24 August 2027
- Sunday, 13 August 2028
- Friday, 31 August 2029
Where Gokulashtami falls on the solar year, and how far the date moves between occurrences.
- 2027: 24 Aug
- 2028: 13 Aug, 10 days earlier
- 2029: 31 Aug, 17 days later
The dates, year by year
Maharashtra calendar, computed for Chennai
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.
Significance
The Bhagavata tells how, at the hour of the birth, the guards of Kamsa's prison fell asleep, the chains fell from Vasudeva and the doors opened by themselves, and how the child left in Krishna's place was Yogamaya, the goddess, who slipped from Kamsa's hands when he tried to kill her and told him from the sky that his killer was already born. The day's fast is kept as Devaki and Vasudeva kept watch, and it is broken only once the child has come, so the whole household waits up for midnight together. Temples and homes set out jhankis, little scenes of the birth, the river crossing and Gokul, and in some Vaishnava temples the deity is offered a feast of fifty-six dishes. When the Ashtami meets Rohini, the star of the birth, the night is called Jayanti and held to be the most sacred of all. Maharashtra keeps Gokulashtami with a kirtan of the birth in the temples, timed to reach the birth at midnight, when the cradle is rocked and the palna is sung; in the morning comes the gopalkala, Krishna's dish from the pastures, many things mixed in one bowl and handed out as prasad.
How it is kept
The puja as a household does it, in order. Tick each step as it is done.
Gokulashtami: how it is kept
Keep ready
- an image of the infant Krishna, Laddu Gopal
- a small cradle or jhula
- new clothes, a crown, a flute and a peacock feather for the image
- milk, curd, ghee, honey and sugar
- tulasi leaves
- fresh butter and mishri
- coriander powder, ghee, sugar and dry fruit for the panjiri
- a conch and bells
- flowers and a ghee lamp
- fruit for the fast
The steps
0 of 9 done
What is cooked
Maharashtra offers sunthwada, a powder of dry ginger, coconut and sugar, at the midnight birth, keeps the fast on sabudana and fruit, and makes the gopalkala of poha, curd, cucumber, pomegranate, green chilli, ginger and lahya for the prasad of the next morning.
The hour
Clock times for Tuesday, 24 August 2027 at Chennai
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 main rite. Nishita, true midnight, while the Krishna Ashtami runs: the abhishekam and the cradle are at midnight. The fast is broken after the midnight puja in many homes, and in others at the parana the next morning, once the Ashtami, and for the strict the Rohini, have ended.
| Instant | Time | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Sunrise | 05:57 | the udaya tithi, the tithi running as the sun comes up |
| Nishita | 00:11 | true midnight, the midpoint of sunset and the next sunrise |
Sunrise 05:57, sunset 18:25, UTC+5.5. These are the instants the rule is read at, not the temple's own puja times, which every temple prints for itself.
The day itself
| What | When | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Tithi | Krishna Saptami from previous day 20:53 until 20:25 | then Krishna Ashtami until next day 19:20 |
| Nakshatra | Bharani until 12:38 | then Krittika until next day 12:28 |
| Rahu kaal | 15:18 to 16:52 (1 h 33 min) | the eighth of the daylight left alone for a beginning |
| Yamaganda | 09:04 to 10:38 (1 h 33 min) | the eighth ruled by Yama, also avoided |
| Gulika | 12:11 to 13:45 (1 h 33 min) | the eighth of Saturn’s son; what is done in it is said to repeat |
| Abhijit | 11:46 to 12:36 (0 h 50 min) | the midday muhurta, good for most things |
| Moonrise | 23:07 | moonset next day 12:26 |
For Tuesday, 24 August 2027 at Chennai. A time marked "previous day" or "next day" is on the clock of that day.
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.
What is avoided
No grain, meat, eggs, onion or garlic on the day of the fast, and the fast is not broken before the child is born at midnight. Nobody sleeps before the midnight puja in a house keeping the vigil.
The name
The same day, in every language that has a word for it
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 and reads it against the solar month: the Ashtami that meets Rohini inside Chingam. When that meeting falls in Karkidakam instead, before Chingam has begun, Kerala keeps the next one and the day lands about a month after the rest of the country, as it did on 14 September 2025 against 16 August, and will on 11 September 2028 against 13 August. 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.
In other regions
- Tamil Nadu
- Tamil Nadu keeps the same birth as Krishna Jayanthi or Gokulashtami, with the footprints drawn into the house.
- Kerala
- Kerala keeps it as Ashtami Rohini, with the Shobha Yatra and the midnight puja at Guruvayur.
- Telugu
- Andhra and Telangana keep Krishnashtami with the fast and the footprints, and Tirumala holds the Gokulashtami asthanam that night and the Utlotsavam, the pot hung high and struck, the next day.
- Kannada
- Karnataka keeps it with the moonrise arghya and the midnight puja; Udupi, which reckons it by the Madhva rule, fills its streets with the pili vesha, the tiger dancers, and closes with the Vitla Pindi procession.
- North India
- The north keeps the night at Mathura's Krishna Janmabhoomi and in Vrindavan, where the Banke Bihari temple holds its mangala arati only once a year, in the small hours after the birth; Dwarka and the Pushtimarg temple at Nathdwara keep it as their greatest night, and every town sets out jhankis.
- Maharashtra (the dates above)
- Maharashtra keeps the night with the birth kirtan and the palna in the temples and at home, the fast broken with the gopalkala the next morning; Pandharpur and the Vitthal temples hold the largest kirtans.
- Bengal
- Bengal fasts through the day, keeps the midnight puja in the homes and at Mayapur, and keeps Nandotsav the next day with taaler bora and sweets.
- Assam
- Assam sings the naam through the night in the namghars and the satras, and the satras of Barpeta and Majuli keep it as one of the great nights of the Vaishnava year.
- Nepal
- Nepal keeps the night at the Krishna Mandir in Patan.
- Tulu Nadu
- Tulu Nadu keeps it as Ashtemi, and at Udupi it is the great day of the Krishna Matha, with the Vittla Pindi and the mosaru kudike the morning after.
- Sindhi
- Thadri is the day before it in a Sindhi house, so the cold lolas of the Satam are still on the table when the night fast of the Ashtami begins, and the hearth is lit again only on this morning.
The dates above are the Maharashtra reckoning, because that is the calendar this key belongs to. Switch the tradition on the calendar page to see how another one dates the same day.
Greeting
What is said to family and friends on the day
गोकुळाष्टमीच्या हार्दिक शुभेच्छाGokulashtamichya hardik shubhechha
Where this day is kept
Nearest first from Chennai, with what is recorded about each.
- Sri Krishna Janmabhoomi, Mathura 1,626 kmUttar Pradesh
The entry for this day names Mathura, and it is a temple of Krishna. The birth of Krishna at midnight in the prison at Mathura.
- Banke Bihari Temple, Vrindavan 1,634 kmMathura, Uttar Pradesh
The entry for this day names Vrindavan, and it is a temple of Krishna. 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.
- Sri Krishna Matha, Udupi 598 kmKarnataka
The gazetteer line for this temple names the day. Krishna Janmashtami and the two-yearly Paryaya are its days.
Your family's own temple comes first, and its calendar is the one that decides.
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A temple is listed here only where the gazetteer's own line names this day, or where this day's own entry names the town, or where the day belongs to the ancestors or the nagas and the temple is recorded for that rite. Where neither table says anything, nothing is listed as kept for the day; where fewer than three are, the nearest temples of the day's own gods are added under a heading of their own.
Mantras
The prayers said with the day. Each opens with its words and meaning.
Every date here is computed from the Sun and Moon for the place entered, by the rule printed beside it.
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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.