Janai Purnima · Rakshya Bandhan Festival The full moon of Shrawan, on which Brahmin and Chhetri men change the janai, the sacred thread, after a bath and the Rishi Tarpani, and everyone else has a yellow doro tied on the wrist by a priest.
The name
The same day, written in each of the six scripts this app keeps
- English
- Janai Purnima · Rakshya Bandhan
- हिन्दी
- जनै पूर्णिमा
- नेपाली
- जनै पूर्णिमा · रक्षाबन्धन
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 Shrawan, on which Brahmin and Chhetri men change the janai, the sacred thread, after a bath and the Rishi Tarpani, and everyone else has a yellow doro tied on the wrist by a priest. The doro is worn until Laxmi Puja and then tied to the tail of a cow. Kwati, a soup of nine sprouted beans, is cooked in every house, and the pilgrimage is to the lake at Gosaikunda and to Kumbheshwar in Patan, whose tank is held to be fed from it.
- Deity
- Shiva, Varuna, Gayatri
- Kind
- Festival Days of celebration: the house is decorated, a feast is cooked and the temple is visited.
The hour
The rule in words
Shrawan Purnima at sunrise; the thread is changed in the morning, after the bath and the tarpan.
The fast
Those changing the janai fast until the rite is finished and then eat the kwati. Most houses keep the day without meat.
Where the regions differ
Nepal ties the doro and eats the kwati; the same full moon is Raksha Bandhan in north India, the Upakarma in the south and the Deccan, Narali Purnima on the Konkan coast and Jhulan Purnima in Bengal.
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.