Kṛṣṇa Janmāṣṭamī, also called Gokulāṣṭamī and Śrī Jayantī, marks the midnight birth of Kṛṣṇa in Kaṃsa's prison at Mathurā. Devotees fast through the day and keep an āratī at the birth hour. Baby footprints are drawn into the house, as if the child had just walked in. Butter, milk and sweets fill the offering plate, because these are what the young Kṛṣṇa loved to steal. How the day is fixed: The tithi is Kṛṣṇa Pakṣa Aṣṭamī in Śrāvaṇa or Bhādrapada, best when Rohiṇī nakṣatra joins it. When Aṣṭamī leads, the day is called Gokulāṣṭamī, and when Rohiṇī is given priority, it is called Śrī Jayantī. Keep in mind: Read the sunrise tithi and nakṣatra at your own place, because the civil date can shift by a day from city to city. When Kṛttikā and Aṣṭamī fall on the same day, many households keep the fast that day and worship at sunset instead of midnight. This year: The 2026 date shown here is worked out from sunrise at the place you chose, so in another city the same day can fall a day earlier or later. Fast and the birth-hour āratī: Many homes fast until midnight and keep vigil with bhajans. The fast is broken only after the āratī at the hour of birth. Baby footprints: Small footprints are drawn in rice flour from the threshold to the pūjā place, recalling the butter thief walking into Nanda's house. Children are told that Kṛṣṇa came into the home this way tonight. Butter, milk and sweets: Butter, milk, curd and crisp sweets are set out with fruit and regional favourites such as seedai, murukku, chekkalu, chakkuli or unniyappam. They are offered on a banana leaf or a silver plate before the āratī. Worth remembering: Kerala's Ashtami Rohiṇi celebrates the same birth but waits for Rohiṇī, even when Aṣṭamī falls on another day. It is related, and it is kept as a separate observance. Each house has its own sweets, its own songs and its own hour for the pūjā. At the close, many families offer arghya to Kṛṣṇa and to Vasudeva, Devakī, Nandagopa, Yaśodā, Akrūra and Uddhava, as their custom directs. Follow the way your own house elders have welcomed Kṛṣṇa on this night.
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