Paush Purnima Festival The full moon of Pausha, the day the Magha kalpavas begins at Prayagraj: pilgrims move onto the sands at the Sangam and live there in tents for a month, bathing three times a day, eating once and hearing the recitations.
The name
The same day, written in each of the six scripts this app keeps
- English
- Paush Purnima
- हिन्दी
- पौष पूर्णिमा
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 Pausha, the day the Magha kalpavas begins at Prayagraj: pilgrims move onto the sands at the Sangam and live there in tents for a month, bathing three times a day, eating once and hearing the recitations. It is a bathing day at Haridwar and Varanasi too, and the Shakambhari Purnima of the goddess of green food.
- Deity
- Vishnu, Shakambhari, Ganga
- Kind
- Festival Days of celebration: the house is decorated, a feast is cooked and the temple is visited.
The hour
The rule in words
Pausha Purnima at sunrise; the bath is at dawn, and the vows for the kalpavas are taken during the day.
The fast
Those beginning the kalpavas eat one meal a day for the month. Grain, blankets and sesame are given away on the day itself.
Where the regions differ
Prayagraj is the centre, and in a Kumbh or Magh Mela year this is one of the great bathing dates. The south marks the same full moon as Thai Pournami without the mela.
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.