Vasant Panchami
Vasant Panchami (Sanskrit: वसन्त पञ्चमी, romanized: Vasanta Pañcamī), also rendered Vasanta Panchami and Saraswati Puja in honour of the Hindu goddess Saraswati, is a festival that marks the preparation for the arrival of spring. The festival is celebrated in Indian religions in different ways depending on the region. Vasant Panchami also marks the start of preparation for Holika and Holi, which take place forty days later. The Vasant Utsava (festival) on Panchami is celebrated forty days before spring, because any season's transition period is 40 days, and after that, the season comes into full bloom.
| Vasant Panchami | |
|---|---|
Goddess Saraswati, Goddess of knowledge. This print from the Ravi Varma Press derived from a painting by Raja Ravi Varma. | |
| Official name | Vasant Panchami |
| Also called | Saraswati Puja |
| Observed by | Hindus, Sikhs and Jains in India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Java and Bali (Indonesia and many other countries) |
| Type | Cultural |
| Significance | Spring, harvest, Goddess Saraswati |
| Celebrations | Worship of Goddess Saraswati |
| Date | Magha Shukla Panchami |
| 2023 date | 26 January (Thursday) |
| 2024 date | 14 February (Wednesday) |
Hindu festival dates The Hindu calendar is lunisolar but most festival dates are specified using the lunar portion of the calendar. A lunar day is uniquely identified by three calendar elements: māsa (lunar month), pakṣa (lunar fortnight) and tithi (lunar day). Furthermore, when specifying the masa, one of two traditions are applicable, viz. amānta / pūrṇimānta. If a festival falls in the waning phase of the moon, these two traditions identify the same lunar day as falling in two different (but successive) masa. A lunar year is shorter than a solar year by about eleven days. As a result, most Hindu festivals occur on different days in successive years on the Gregorian calendar. | |
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