Indian Festivals – Origin and Date Calculation

Festivals are an integral part of India. Indians are known for different celebrations of different festivals.

Our Festivals are just not celebrated in India but in the many other countries as well. Latest example is Barack Obama celebrating Diwali in white house.

But have you ever noticed that festivals like Christmas fall on the same day every year but many of our

festivals fall on different dates!

Yes, the dates of these festivals change but the duration between one festival to another doesn’t

change. For example, Dussehra and Diwali might come on different days evert year but the time gap between the both always remains constant at 20 days.

How is it possible? Let’s find out!

To start off in India we celebrate two types of festivals

1. Birthday’s

2. Events Festivals

We call Birthday’s as Jayanthi like Krishna Jayanthi, Mahavir Jayanthi etc.; and for the events, festivals are

related to events like Rama killing Ravana celebrated as Dussehra and Rama’s return Ayodhya celebrated as Diwali.

Now, let us understand the timing of these festivals

1. Ugadi is the new year which is taken as benchmark to other festivals. It comes on the next day of

New moon between second week of mark to 1st week of April. This is the beginning of first month

of Chaitra.

2. 8 days after new year is celebrated as Ram Navami. Navami means 9th Day and the gap between

1st day and 9th day is 8 days. Ram Navami is birth day of Lord Rama the greatest Mythological ruler.

3. After Ram Navami, we have 3 months gap where full moon day of the fourth month Ashadam is

celebrated as Bonalu in Telangana. Bonalu is the festival offering harvest to the goddess wishing

and praying for prosperity and growth.

4. Exactly one month later full moon day of 5th month Shravana is celebrated as Raksha Bandhan. It

is a festival symbolling the brother and sister relationship in India since ages and now it widely

celebrated in other countries too.

5. Exactly 7 days after Raksha Bandhan we have Krishna Janmasthami the birth of lord Krishna. We

all know the pivotal role of Krishna in Kurushektra war who mentored Pandavas in defeating

Kouravas.

6. 11 days after Janmasthami is Ganesh Chaturthi which falls on the fourth day of 6th month

Bhadrapada. Ganesh Chaturthi is the Birthday of Lord Ganesh who is termed as God for Ridhi,

Buddhi and Siddhi, which means Prosperity, Intellect and Spirituality.

7. After 36 days gap, on the 10th day of 7th month Ashweija is celebrated as Dussehra or

Vijayadashami. This festival symbolizes win for good over evil.

8. 20 days after Dussehra on the last day of Ashweija we celebrate Diwali. It is celebrated as Lord

Rama returns to native Ayodhya after his 14 years exile.

9. 15 days after Diwali in the 8th month of Karthika we celebrated it as Karthik Pournami. This is the

month when many Indian women fast and pray for prosperity of their families.

10. Then there is more than 3 months gap on 29th day of the 11th month Maagha. This festival is Maha

Shivratri the birth day of Lord Shiva.

11. 17 days after this is Holi. Holi falls on the full moon day of the last month of the year Phalguna.

Holi is the festival of spring and colors.

12. Apart from this there is one festival called Makara Sankranti which follows solar calendar and

comes on 14th January evert year. Makara Sankranti is harvest festival and also the beginning of

Uttarayan or the northern movement of sun.

To summarize

1. Ugadi 1st day after new moon anytime between March 2nd and April 1st week

2. Ram Navami 8 days after Ugadi

3. Bonalu full moon day of the 4th month

4. Raksha Bandhan full moon day of the 5th month

5. Krishna Janmasthami 7 days Raksha Bandhan

6. Ganesh Chaturthi 11 days after Krishna Janmasthami

7. Dussehra is 36 days after Ganesh Chaturthi

8. Diwali is 20 days after Dussehra

9. Karthika Pournami is 16 days after Diwali

10. Maha Shivratri 100-101 days after Karthika Pournami

11. Holi 17 days after Maha Shivratri 12. Makara Sankranti is 14th of January every year

Thus, if you can find the date of Ugadi you can easily find out the dates of all other festivals.