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
Tamil Nadu calendar, computed for Chennai
- Wednesday, 25 August 2027
- Sunday, 13 August 2028
- Saturday, 1 September 2029
Where Krishna Jayanthi · Gokulashtami falls on the solar year, and how far the date moves between occurrences.
- 2027: 25 Aug
- 2028: 13 Aug, 11 days earlier
- 2029: 1 Sep, 18 days later
The dates, year by year
Tamil Nadu calendar, computed for Chennai
What the day is
The birth of Krishna, at midnight on the Ashtami of the dark fortnight of Aavani. Small footprints in rice flour are drawn from the doorway to the puja room so that the child walks in, and the seedai, murukku and butter he is fond of are set out. Kerala keeps the day as Ashtami Rohini, the Ashtami that meets Rohini, the birth star.
- Deity
- Krishna
- Kind
- Festival Days of celebration: the house is decorated, a feast is cooked and the temple is visited.
Significance
Krishna was born in Kamsa's prison at Mathura, the eighth child of Devaki and Vasudeva, and that same night Vasudeva carried him across the Yamuna in flood to Gokulam, where he grew up as Yashoda's son; the rice-flour footprints are drawn so that the same child crosses the Tamil threshold. Tamil devotion to him is above all to the child: Periyalvar sang of his pranks, his cradle and his bath as a mother would, and the Oothukkadu songs are sung in many houses that keep the day. Srivaishnava families keep Sri Jayanthi by the Rohini star in Aavani while Smarta families keep Gokulashtami by the Ashtami tithi, so in some years the two fall on different days in the same street. Homes with young children make the most of it, dressing them as Krishna and Radha and setting out butter for the little thief to steal.
How it is kept
The puja as a household does it, in order. Tick each step as it is done.
Krishna Jayanthi · Gokulashtami: how it is kept
Keep ready
- rice flour paste for the footprints
- an image or picture of the child Krishna
- a small cradle or a manai
- a peacock feather
- tulasi leaves and flowers
- fresh butter (vennai), curd and milk
- aval and jaggery
- naval pazham, banana and other fruit
- rice flour, urad dal and jaggery for the bakshanam
- mango leaves for the thoranam
- kuthuvilakku and camphor
The steps
0 of 9 done
What is cooked
Tamil Nadu makes the Gokulashtami bakshanam: uppu seedai and vella seedai (small fried balls of rice flour, salted or sweetened with jaggery), murukku, thattai, appam and aval payasam, with vennai, curd, aval with jaggery and naval pazham set out as they are. Kerala makes unniyappam, palpayasam and avil for Ashtami Rohini; the north makes dhaniya panjiri, makhan mishri and panchamrit; Maharashtra mixes gopalkala of poha, curd and cucumber for the next day; Bengal fries taaler bora, sweet fritters of palm fruit.
The hour
Clock times for Wednesday, 25 August 2027 at Chennai
The Ashtami holding the sunrise, which is the Vaishnava reckoning and the day the Tamil Nadu holiday list keeps (26 August 2024, 16 August 2025, 4 September 2026), with a day that also carries Rohini preferred. The puja itself is at nishita, true midnight, the hour of the birth; households that read the Ashtami at that instant instead keep the night before when the tithi begins late in the evening, as it did in 2025.
The main rite. Nishita, true midnight, on the day the Krishna Ashtami of Aavani covers midnight, else the day it holds sunrise; the fast runs through the day and the puja is timed to the midnight birth. Srivaishnava households that keep Sri Jayanthi by the Rohini star may keep another day.
| 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 Ashtami from previous day 20:25 until 19:20 | then Krishna Navami until next day 17:40 |
| Nakshatra | Krittika until 12:28 | then Rohini until next day 11:43 |
| Rahu kaal | 12:11 to 13:44 (1 h 33 min) | the eighth of the daylight left alone for a beginning |
| Yamaganda | 07:31 to 09:04 (1 h 33 min) | the eighth ruled by Yama, also avoided |
| Gulika | 10:38 to 12:11 (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, not counted on a Wednesday |
| Moonrise | no moonrise this date | moonset 12:26 |
For Wednesday, 25 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, aval (flattened rice), seedai and murukku are the offering; many keep it as a phalahara fast on fruit and milk.
What is avoided
No meat, fish, onion or garlic, and no grain for those keeping the full fast until the midnight puja. The footprints are not stepped on or swept away before the puja, since they are the path the child takes in.
The name
The same day, in every language that has a word for it
Where the regions differ
Tamil Nadu reads the tithi at midnight and Kerala looks for Ashtami with Rohini, so the two can differ by a day. The north calls the same night Bhadrapada Krishna Ashtami and the south Shravana Krishna Ashtami: one night, two month names.
In other regions
- Tamil Nadu (the dates above)
- Kept in every Tamil home with young children and at the Perumal temples with the uriyadi the next day; Srivaishnavas keep Sri Jayanthi by the Rohini star, and the Rajagopalaswamy temple at Mannargudi, where Krishna stands as the cowherd, keeps it as one of its great days.
- Kerala
- Kerala keeps Ashtami Rohini, looking for the Ashtami that meets Rohini inside the solar month Chingam, which in some years puts it a month after the rest of the country as in 2025 and 2028, with the Shobha Yatra of children dressed as Krishna in the streets and the midnight puja at Guruvayur.
- Telugu
- Andhra and Telangana keep Krishnashtami with the uttiyadi, the pot broken high above the street, and footprints drawn into the house much as in Tamil homes.
- Kannada
- Karnataka keeps Krishna Janmashtami with an arghya to the moon at its rising, and Udupi keeps it by its own reckoning, with the Vitla Pindi, the pot-breaking procession, the next day.
- North India
- The north keeps Janmashtami at midnight, with jhankis of the birth in the temples and the greatest crowds at Mathura and Vrindavan.
- Maharashtra
- Maharashtra keeps Gokulashtami, and the next day is Dahi Handi, when human pyramids climb to break a pot of curd hung high over the street.
- Bengal
- Bengal keeps Janmashtami with a fast and a midnight puja, and the next day is Nandotsav, the celebration at Nanda's house.
- Nepal
- Nepal keeps Krishnashtami at the Krishna Mandir in Patan, where devotees sing through the night.
The dates above are the Tamil Nadu 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
இனிய கிருஷ்ண ஜெயந்தி நல்வாழ்த்துக்கள்Iniya Krishna Jayanthi nalvazhthukkal
Where this day is kept
Nearest first from Chennai, with what is recorded about each.
Temples of Krishna near you
Not recorded for this day in particular: the nearest temples of the day's own gods, for a reader whose own temple is not listed above.
- Chennai, Tamil Nadu · Venkatakrishnan (Parthasarathy) with the arrow scars on his face
- Chennai, Tamil Nadu · The eight forms of Lakshmi in shrines on four floors, facing the sea
- Chennai, Tamil Nadu · Adhivyadhihara Bhaktha Anjaneyar, thirty-two feet tall from a single block of granite
- Chennai, Tamil Nadu · Neervanna Perumal below and Ranganathar on the hill, in four postures
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.