Shitala Ashtami · Basoda Vratam The day Shitala Mata is worshipped in Rajasthan and the one day of the year on which the kitchen fire is not lit.

English

Shitala Ashtami · Basoda

हिन्दी

शीतला अष्टमी · बसोड़ा

राजस्थानी

शीतला अष्टमी · बसोड़ा

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.

1. Tuesday, 30 March 2027
2. Saturday, 18 March 2028
3. Wednesday, 7 March 2029

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Worked out for Chennai, Lahiri ayanamsa. A date is a function of the place: set yours above and the next three come back for where you are.

The day Shitala Mata is worshipped in Rajasthan and the one day of the year on which the kitchen fire is not lit. Everything is cooked on the Saptami evening, the hearth is then washed and left cold, and the food is eaten cold on this morning, which is what basoda means. Mothers keep the day for their children, because the goddess who sends the fever is held to be the one who takes it away, and she is asked for the cooling of it at the start of the hot months.

Deity

Shitala Mata

Kind

Vratam Days kept by a fast or a vow, most of them coming round every lunar month.

Chaitra Krishna Ashtami at sunrise in the purnimanta reckoning, the eighth day after the Holika Dahan; the cooking is done the previous evening and the offering is made early, before the day gets hot.

Sunrise 06:07, sunset 18:20, 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 food cooked the night before is eaten cold and nothing is cooked fresh. Many women take only the cold offering itself, and nothing fried or hot is eaten by anyone in the house that day.

Rajasthan keeps it on Chaitra Krishna Ashtami after Holi with the great fair at Chaksu; Gujarat keeps the same goddess on Shravan vad Satam as Shitala Satam, cooking the day before on Randhan Chhath, and Bengal and Odisha keep her with pujas of their own, so the goddess is shared and the day is not. Some Rajasthani families keep the Saptami rather than the Ashtami.

The dates above are the Rajasthan 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.

A temple visit, or the first darshan at a new temple. No weekday is ruled out: Tuesday belongs to Murugan and the Amman, Saturday to Perumal and Sani, so the day usually follows the deity rather than the almanac. Ashtami and Chaturdasi are the two tithis held back for darshan, with the standing exceptions of Sivaratri on Krishna Chaturdasi and Kala Bhairava Ashtami, which are kept on those very days. Rahu kaal, Yamaganda and Gulika kaal are not scored here; the panchangam page prints them for the day you pick, and most families simply wait them out.

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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.