Vasubaras · Govatsa Dwadashi Festival The twelfth of the dark fortnight of Ashwin, the day the Diwali week opens in Maharashtra with the cow and her calf.
The name
The same day, written in each of the six scripts this app keeps
- English
- Vasubaras · Govatsa Dwadashi
- हिन्दी
- गोवत्स द्वादशी
- मराठी
- वसुबारस · गोवत्स द्वादशी
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 twelfth of the dark fortnight of Ashwin, the day the Diwali week opens in Maharashtra with the cow and her calf. The two are washed, their feet touched, an arati is done and sprouted gram or wheat is fed to them, and the household eats nothing made of wheat or of cow's milk that day out of respect. Women keep it for the well-being of their children, the calf standing for the child.
- Deity
- Gomatha, 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
Ashwin vadya Dwadashi running at pradosha, the two hours and twenty-four minutes after sunset, because the arati is done at dusk; else the Dwadashi at sunrise.
The fast
Many women keep a fast until the evening arati and then eat without wheat, gram or milk. Bajra bhakri and a moong bhaji are the usual meal.
Where the regions differ
Maharashtra, Gujarat and the Hindi belt keep Govatsa Dwadashi or Bach Baras; the south does not, keeping its cattle days at Mattu Pongal and Kanuma in January instead.
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.