Jamai Sashti 2028: Date, Rituals & Significance

Shukla Panchami runs 28 May, 08:23 → 29 May, 06:26.

Shashthi Devi, riding a cat, protects children and grandchildren; her monthly Shashti is kept by mothers, and the Jyeshtha one is folded into a rite of welcoming the daughter's household. The son-in-law is seated, fanned, marked with sandal and curd, given a fruit platter with mango, jackfruit and litchi (the season's fruit), and served an enormous meal — ilish, mutton, prawns, sweets. Small hand fans (taal pata pankha) are the day's emblem.

The Shashthi vrata-katha tells of a greedy wife who ate the household's fish herself and blamed the family cat — Shashthi's mount — for it; the goddess took her children one by one, until she confessed, worshipped Shashthi and was forgiven. From the custom of a married daughter not visiting her parents' home unaccompanied, Jamai Sashti grew as the sanctioned day for the son-in-law to bring her, and be honoured for it.

Source: Regional / sectarian festival tradition and the sources named in the text

Jamai Sashti is a Bengali and Odia domestic festival of long standing, tied to the Shashthi cult and to the social norms around a daughter's visits to her natal home; it is widely kept in West Bengal, Bangladesh, Tripura and Assam's Bengali community.

• Wikipedia

1. In Bengal, mothers-in-law worship the goddess Shashthi for their children's welfare, and invite their sons-in-law home.
2. The jamai is welcomed with a blessing of rice and durva, fanned with a palm fan dipped in water, and given new clothes.
3. The day is famous for the lavish lunch laid out for him.

• West Bengal, Bangladesh, Tripura, Assam. The daughter and son-in-law invited and feasted; Shashthi Devi worshipped, the jamai fanned, thread-tied and given a fruit platter and gifts.

• The jamai's feast — Ilish, chingri malaikari, mutton and a dozen other dishes, with mishti doi and sandesh.
• Fruit platter — Mangoes, litchis and jackfruit of the Jyeshtha season.

Jamai Sashti is kept on the day when Shashthi of Jyeshtha Shukla paksha prevails at sunrise. This year it falls on Monday, 29 May 2028. Shashthi does not hold at sunrise on any of the nearby days. Shashthi begins after sunrise on Monday, 29 May and ends before the next sunrise.

at sunrise

Tithi skipped (kshaya)

Jamai Sashti falls on Jyeshtha Shukla Shashti, the sixth tithi of the waxing moon in Jyeshtha, in May or June. The Shashthi puja is done in the morning, before the midday feast.

A lunar date: Shashthi of the bright half of Jyeshtha drifts about 11 days earlier each solar year, then jumps back ~19 days when a leap (Adhika) month is inserted.