Maha Shivaratri festival
Once a year, usually during the 11th month in the Hindu calendar, Maha Shivaratri is celebrated. The celebration usually falls in February or March, before the arrival of the spring season. The day is known as the Great Night of Shiva.
On this day Shiva is said to have saved the world from destruction on the condition that people worshipped him with great pride and enthusiasm. Other legends say that Shiva named this specific day when the goddess Parvati asked. Maha Shivaratri is a major festival within the Hinduism culture because it marks remembrance of overcoming darkness and ignorance in the world. During this day, the culture observes the day be remembering Shiva and changing prayers, fasting, doing yoga, and meditating. Ethics and virtues of self-restraint, honesty, kindness to others, forgiveness, and the discovery of Shiva are the primary focuses and ultimate goals.
Maha Shivaratri is one of the biggest festivals of Hindus. Devotees offer water, milk, dhatura, bhaang, akwan flowers to Shiva’s idol or Shivalinga and worship the Hindu God of destruction. Shiva is considered the ideal husband and unmarried girls and women pray for a husband like him. In Hindu mythology, every day in the calendar holds some significance and the stories often vary from different regions and communities.
According to a legend in the Shiva Purana, two of the triads of Hindu Gods, Brahma and Vishnu, were fighting to establish who’s superior between the two. Horrified at the intensity of the battle, the other gods asked Shiva to intervene and he assumed the form of a swan and went upwards while Vishnu took the form of Varaha and went inside earth. As light has no limit, neither Brahma nor Vishnu could find the end despite searching for thousands of miles.
During his journey upwards, Brahma came across a Ketaki flower. When asked where she had come from, the flower replied she had been offered at the top of the fire column. Brahma decided to end his search and take the flower as a witness. This angered Shiva who then punished Brahma for lying and cursed him that no one would ever pray to him. Till date, Hindus do not worship Brahma and there is only one temple dedicated to him - the Pushkar temple in Rajasthan. The Ketaki flower too was banned from being used as an offering for any worship. Since Shiva helped pacify the fight among the Gods, the day is celebrated in his honor.
At Maha Shivratri, people fast the whole day and night and attend temple in the morning. They come to the temple to perform the puja of traditional Shivalingam and hope to get what they have prayed to the god. They take bath in the holy water of the Ganga, a symbol of purity, early in the morning before sunrise and wear clean clothes after the sacred bath.
Every worshiper brings a pot full of holy water to the temple to offer the Shivalingam. Women pray to God for her well-being of their husbands and sons, an unmarried woman pray to get their desired husband like Shiva in future; boys pray to get beautiful wife and successful life in future. The temple full of sound of bells and people shouts of “Shankerji ki Jai” or “Mahadevji ki Jai”. Devotees take five rounds of the Shivalingam and pour water on the Shivalingam. Some also pour cow milk on the Shivalingam.