Tila Atham · Teel Aetham Festival The great night of Shiva, the fourteenth of the dark fortnight before the Magha new moon.

1. Tuesday, 16 March 2027
2. Saturday, 4 March 2028
3. Thursday, 22 February 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 great night of Shiva, the fourteenth of the dark fortnight before the Magha new moon. It is kept as the night Shiva danced the tandava, and as the night he appeared as the lingam of fire without top or bottom. The whole night is passed awake in four watches, with an abhishekam of milk, water, honey, curd and ghee at each, and the bilva leaf offered at every one.

Deity

Shiva, Parvati

Kind

Festival Days of celebration: the house is decorated, a feast is cooked and the temple is visited.

Phalgun Shukla Ashtami at sunrise, the eighth of the bright fortnight of the purnimanta Phalguna, and the last of the twenty three days of Herath.

Sunrise 06:16, sunset 18:19, 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.

A full fast, in the strict form without water, from the morning to the next sunrise, broken after the last watch. Many keep it as a phalahara fast on fruit, milk and sabudana.

English

Tila Atham · Teel Aetham

தமிழ்

மகா சிவராத்திரி

తెలుగు

మహాశివరాత్రి

ಕನ್ನಡ

ಮಹಾಶಿವರಾತ್ರಿ

മലയാളം

മഹാശിവരാത്രി

हिन्दी

महाशिवरात्रि

ગુજરાતી

મહા શિવરાત્રી

नेपाली

महाशिवरात्रि

ଓଡ଼ିଆ

ମହା ଶିବରାତ୍ରି · ଜାଗର

कॉशुर

तिल अठम

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.

One night kept by the whole country. The north calls it Phalguna Krishna Chaturdashi and the south Magha Krishna Chaturdashi, which is the same night under two month names. Kashmir keeps Herath over several days, and the Lingayats of Karnataka keep it as the night of the ishtalinga. Nepal keeps it at Pashupatinath, where the sadhus come up from India for it and the bonfires are lit against the cold. The til is offered and the oil lamp lit, and the long Herath observance that opened on Phalgun Krishna Pratipada closes inside the same purnimanta month.

The dates above are the Kashmir 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.

• Kotilingeshwara Temple, Kolar 214 km
  Kammasandra, Karnataka

  The gazetteer line for this temple names the day. Maha Sivaratri is its day.

• Gangaikonda Cholapuram Brihadeeswarar Temple 226 km
  Jayankondam, Ariyalur, Tamil Nadu

  The gazetteer line for this temple names the day. Quiet even on Sivaratri

• Papanasanathar Temple, Papanasam 263 km
  Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu

  The gazetteer line for this temple names the day. Amavasai tarpanam and Maha Sivaratri are its days

• Brihadeeswarar Temple (Peruvudaiyar Koil) 284 km
  Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu

  The gazetteer line for this temple names the day. Maha Sivaratri and the Sadaya Vizha are its days

• Male Mahadeshwara Temple 313 km
  MM Hills, Chamarajanagar, Karnataka

  The gazetteer line for this temple names the day. Maha Sivaratri and the Ugadi fair are its days.

• Mahanandiswara Temple, Mahanandi 336 km
  Nandyal, Andhra Pradesh

  The gazetteer line for this temple names the day. Maha Sivaratri is its day.

39 more temples in this gazetteer are recorded for the day. Find temples near you.

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. Your family's own temple comes first, and its calendar is the one that decides.

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.

Find a day for temple visit →

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.