India Celebrates Janmashtami With Immense Fervour

Ahmedabad: The Hindu festival of Krishna Janmashtami is being celebrated with much pomp across the country. The festival is also known as Janmashtami, Gokulashtami, Krishnasthami, or Srijayanti, and marks the birth of Lord Krishna – the eighth avatar of Vishnu.

It is celebrated on the eighth day of the Krishna Paksha in the month of Shraavana of Bhadrapad. The largest celebration of this festival takes place in Mathura and Vrindavan, where Lord Krishna was born and spent his growing-up years.

This year, the Janmashtami celebrations began on August 18 and will continue until the next day. Dahi Handi, an important ritual, is being marked a day after Janmashtami on Friday, August 19, 2022.

Dahi Handi, which is part of the Krishna Janmashtami festival, is being celebrated on a grand scale across Maharashtra. As part of the festival, youngsters (called Govindas), dressed in colorful attire, make human pyramids to reach an earthen pot containing buttermilk suspended mid-air, and break it. It symbolizes victory through unity.

According to Hindu scriptures, Lord Krishna, the son of Devaki and Vasudeva, was born in Mathura at midnight on the eighth day (Ashtami) of Bhadrapada month (August–September). He was born to destroy Mathura’s demon king, Kansa, Lord Krishna’s mother, Devaki’s brother. Following his birth, Vasudeva – who was imprisoned in a dungeon with Devaki – carried Lord Krishna in a basket across the Yamuna river to Gokul, where he was raised by foster parents Nanda and Yashoda. On Janmashtami, devotees observe fasts, wear new clothes, pray to the idols of Bal Krishna, dress them up in new clothes and place them in a cradle.

(Vinayak)