Govardhan Puja · Annakut Festival The first day of the bright fortnight of Kartika, the day after Diwali, when Krishna lifted the Govardhan hill on his finger to shelter the cowherds from Indra's rain.
The name
The same day, written in each of the six scripts this app keeps
- English
- Govardhan Puja · Annakut
- हिन्दी
- गोवर्धन पूजा · अन्नकूट
- नेपाली
- गोवर्धन पूजा · म्ह: पूजा
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 first day of the bright fortnight of Kartika, the day after Diwali, when Krishna lifted the Govardhan hill on his finger to shelter the cowherds from Indra's rain. A small hill of cow dung or of food is made in the courtyard and worshipped, and the temples pile up the annakut, the mountain of cooked food, before the deity.
- Deity
- Krishna, Govardhan, Gomatha
- Kind
- Festival Days of celebration: the house is decorated, a feast is cooked and the temple is visited.
The hour
The rule in words
Kartika Shukla Pratipada at sunrise; the Govardhan hill is built and worshipped in the morning and the annakut offered at midday.
The fast
No fast. The annakut is the point of the day: fifty-six kinds of food, the chhappan bhog, in the larger temples.
Where the regions differ
Braj, Gujarat and the Pushtimarg temples keep it hardest; Gujarat also begins its Vikram Samvat year on this day as Bestu Varas, which is why the Gujarati year number lags the North Indian one from Chaitra to Diwali. Maharashtra keeps the same tithi as Balipratipada and Nepal as the fourth day of Tihar, when the ox is worshipped and the Newars keep Mha Puja, the worship of the self, and open Nepal Sambat, their own year count.
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.