Janmashtami: Krishna's Birthday
How and why Hindus celebrate Janmashtami, the birth of Krishna, with fasting, midnight worship, cradle rituals and the Dahi Handi human pyramids.
Janmashtami is the festival celebrating the birth of Krishna, one of the most loved deities in Hinduism. Devotees fast during the day, sing devotional songs late into the night and gather at midnight, the hour when Krishna is believed to have been born, to welcome him with prayers, bells and conch shells.
The name combines janma, “birth”, and ashtami, “eighth day”. The festival falls on the eighth day of the dark half of the Hindu month of Bhadrapada, in August or September. It is also called Krishna Janmashtami, Gokulashtami or Krishnashtami.
The story of Krishna's birth
Kamsa, the tyrant king of Mathura, was warned by a voice from the sky that the eighth child of his sister Devaki would kill him. He imprisoned Devaki and her husband Vasudeva and killed their children one by one.
When Krishna, the eighth child, was born at midnight, a miracle took place. The guards fell into a deep sleep, Vasudeva's chains fell away and the prison doors swung open. Vasudeva placed the baby in a basket and carried him across the stormy river Yamuna, sheltered by the serpent Shesha, to the village of Gokul. There he exchanged him for the newborn daughter of the cowherd Nanda and his wife Yashoda, who raised Krishna as their own.
How Janmashtami is celebrated
Fasting and vigil
Many devotees fast for the whole day, some without even water, and others eating only fruit and milk. They spend the evening in temples or at home singing bhajans and kirtans and reading the story of Krishna's birth from the tenth book of the Bhagavata Purana. The fast is broken after midnight.
Midnight worship
At midnight an image of the baby Krishna is bathed in a ritual called abhisheka, often with panchamrita, a mixture of milk, yogurt, ghee, honey and sugar. The image is then dressed in new clothes, placed in a decorated cradle and gently rocked while devotees sing. Temples often present a large offering of different foods, sometimes 56 dishes (chhappan bhog).
Decorations and drama
Homes and temples are decorated with flowers and lights, and some families draw tiny footprints from the doorway to the shrine, representing the infant Krishna entering the house. Children dress up as Krishna and Radha, and scenes from Krishna's life are performed in plays and dances known as Rasa Lila.
Dahi Handi
In Maharashtra and Goa, the day after Janmashtami is celebrated with Dahi Handi. A clay pot filled with yogurt, butter or buttermilk is hung high above the street, and teams of young men and women called Govinda pathaks form human pyramids to reach and break it, while crowds cheer and throw water at them. The custom recalls the child Krishna and his friends climbing on each other's shoulders to steal butter. In Mumbai, the competitions offer large prizes and draw huge crowds.
Where it is celebrated
The greatest celebrations take place in Mathura, Krishna's birthplace, and in Vrindavan, where he spent his childhood. Major festivities are also held at Dwarka in Gujarat, the city Krishna later ruled, and at the Jagannath temple in Puri and the Guruvayur temple in Kerala.
In the United Kingdom, the largest celebration is held at ISKCON's Bhaktivedanta Manor near Watford, which welcomes tens of thousands of visitors over the festival, making it one of the biggest Hindu gatherings in Europe. Temples across the country hold midnight worship.
Sources and further reading
- Edwin Bryant (trans.), Krishna: The Beautiful Legend of God (Srimad Bhagavata Purana Book X) (Penguin Classics, 2003), chapter 3.
- Edwin Bryant (ed.), Krishna: A Sourcebook (Oxford University Press, 2007).