Krishna Jayanthi · Gokulashtami Festival The birth of Krishna, at midnight on the Ashtami of the dark fortnight of Aavani.
The name
The same day, written in each of the six scripts this app keeps
- English
- Krishna Jayanthi · Gokulashtami
- தமிழ்
- கிருஷ்ண ஜெயந்தி
- മലയാളം
- ശ്രീകൃഷ്ണ ജയന്തി · അഷ്ടമിരോഹിണി
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 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.
The hour
The rule in words
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 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.
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.
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.