Guru Purnima · Vyasa Purnima Festival The full moon of Ashadha, kept for the teacher and for Vyasa, who arranged the Vedas and is held to have been born on it.
The name
The same day, written in each of the six scripts this app keeps
- English
- Guru Purnima · Vyasa Purnima
- हिन्दी
- गुरु पूर्णिमा
- मराठी
- गुरुपौर्णिमा · व्यासपौर्णिमा
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 full moon of Ashadha, kept for the teacher and for Vyasa, who arranged the Vedas and is held to have been born on it. Disciples go to their guru with flowers, cloth and a gift; musicians and dancers touch their teacher's feet; monasteries begin the Chaturmas retreat. Buddhists keep the same day as the first sermon at Sarnath.
- Deity
- Vyasa, Dakshinamurthy, Guru
- Kind
- Festival Days of celebration: the house is decorated, a feast is cooked and the temple is visited.
The hour
The rule in words
Ashadha Purnima at sunrise; the guru puja is in the morning.
The fast
No fast is required, though many keep the day without grain out of respect. The offering is to the teacher, not to a fire.
Where the regions differ
Kept by every Indian tradition that has a lineage: Hindu, Buddhist and Jain alike. The south keeps it quietly at the mathas and it is not a public holiday there.
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.