Maha Shivratri 2028: Date, Puja Muhurat & Significance

Nishita Puja: 12:10 AM to 12:58 AM (New Delhi).

These times are worked out from local sunrise and sunset, so they shift by city. Choose your city for your own times.

Krishna Chaturdashi runs 23 Feb, 10:45 → 24 Feb, 13:27.

Shivratri is Shiva's own night: the hours when, tradition says, he is most accessible and the jagran and japa done then carry the greatest fruit. It is kept every lunar month as Masik Shivratri; the Phalguna Krishna Chaturdashi is Maha Shivratri, the greatest of them.

The observance has two arms: a fast, often nirjala, from the previous sunrise until the parana the next morning; and a night vigil in which the linga is bathed four times, once in each three-hour prahar, with a different substance and mantra, amid the recitation of 'Om Namah Shivaya', the Rudri and the Mahamrityunjaya.

The linga is offered bilva (bel) leaves in threes, white flowers, sandal, bhasma (sacred ash) and, regionally, dhatura and bhang: plants and offerings associated with the ascetic, world-renouncing side of Shiva.

Several stories are attached to the night: the appearance of the endless pillar of light (the Lingodbhava) whose ends Brahma and Vishnu could not find; Shiva's cosmic dance; his marriage to Parvati; his holding of the halahala poison at his throat after the churning of the ocean, when the gods kept him awake all night; and the hunter who, fasting and dropping bel leaves through a night by chance, was redeemed.

Linga worship of Shiva is attested from the early historic period and probably earlier; the Puranas of the first millennium CE give Maha Shivratri as a named vrat with its fast, vigil and four-prahar puja, and the medieval nibandha works fix the Nishita-vyapini Chaturdashi rule for choosing the day.

The night is central at the twelve Jyotirlingas (Somnath, Mahakaleshwar at Ujjain, Kashi Vishwanath, Kedarnath, Rameshwaram and the rest) and at Pashupatinath in Kathmandu, which draws tens of thousands of sadhus from India.

Regional forms are old and distinct: Herath is the greatest festival of the Kashmiri Pandits, a multi-day observance around the Vatuk Bhairava puja; at Tiruvannamalai the night is kept with the Girivalam, a barefoot circumambulation of the Arunachala hill; the Mandi Shivratri fair in Himachal gathers the region's village deities in palanquin for a week.

• Shiva Purana, Koti Rudra Samhita: the Shivratri vrata and its phala
• Nirnaya Sindhu and Dharmasindhu: the Nishita-vyapini Chaturdashi day-rule
• Garuda Purana, Purva Khanda: the katha of the hunter

1. A fast is taken from the previous sunrise, nirjala or phalahar with no grains or pulses, and the day is spent in temple visits, the drawing of tripundra, and the reading of the Shiva Purana or the Rudrashtadhyayi.
2. After an evening bath the linga is worshipped in four prahar pujas through the night (roughly at dusk, mid-evening, midnight and pre-dawn), each with its own abhishek dravya (milk, curd, ghee, honey and water) and offerings of bilva in threes, white flowers, sandal and bhasma.
3. The chief puja is at Nishita, near solar midnight; 'Om Namah Shivaya' is jap'd, the Mahamrityunjaya and the Shiva Tandava Stotra recited, and the night kept without sleep with bhajan and katha.
4. The fast is broken (parana) the next morning within the Chaturdashi tithi, after a bath and a final Shiva puja; where Chaturdashi ends before sunrise, parana is done after sunrise.

Phala: Forgiveness of sins and progress toward moksha; by the Shiva Purana's mahatmya, a single night's worship on Maha Shivratri carries the merit of long Shiva-aradhana.

The best-known origin story is the Lingodbhava. Brahma and Vishnu once disputed which of them was supreme. A blazing pillar of light appeared between them, without top or bottom. Vishnu took the form of a boar and dug downward, Brahma flew up as a swan, and neither could reach an end. Shiva then emerged from the pillar as its source, and the two acknowledged him. The linga worshipped on Shivratri is that pillar of light, and the Nishita hour is when it appeared.

The vrat-katha, told in the Garuda and Skanda Puranas, is of a poor hunter, Lubdhaka. Benighted in a forest and afraid of animals, he climbed a bel tree over a pond and, to stay awake, kept plucking and dropping its leaves, which fell, all night, on a linga at the foot of the tree. Hungry and thirsty, he had in effect kept the fast and the four-prahar worship without knowing it. At death, Shiva's messengers came for him instead of Yama's, and he was granted a place in Shiva's world: the point being that even unintentional devotion on this night redeems.

A third strand recalls the Samudra Manthan: when the halahala poison rose from the churned ocean and threatened all creation, Shiva drank it and held it in his throat, which turned blue: Neelkantha. The gods kept vigil beside him through the night lest he sleep and be harmed, and that vigil is the model for the jagran.

Source: Shiva Purana (Vidyeshvara & Koti Rudra Samhitas); Linga Purana; Skanda Purana; Garuda Purana, Purva Khanda (the hunter katha)

1. Sankalpa. Bathe at sunrise, wear clean clothes, draw the tripundra, and take the vow to keep the Maha Shivratri vrat and jagran for the grace of Shiva; name the tithi, paksha and month.
2. Day fast. Keep a nirjala or phalahar fast with no grains, pulses or ordinary salt. No anger or untruth, no daytime sleep; spend the day in Shiva-smarana, temple visits and the Shiva Purana or Rudrashtadhyayi.
3. Evening puja. After an evening bath, worship the linga with Ganga jal, panchamrit, bilva in threes, white flowers, sandal, bhasma and a ghee lamp; begin the japa of 'Om Namah Shivaya'.
4. Four prahar abhishek. Through the night, in each of the four prahars, bathe the linga once (milk, curd, ghee and honey by common usage) with bilva leaves and the prahar mantra, keeping the worship unbroken from dusk to dawn.
5. Nishita puja and jagran. At Nishita, near midnight, do the chief puja and the Lingodbhava contemplation; recite the Mahamrityunjaya and the Shiva Tandava Stotra, and keep the night awake with bhajan and katha.
6. Parana. The next morning, within the Chaturdashi tithi, bathe, do a final Shiva puja, give daan, and break the fast with prasad; if Chaturdashi ends before sunrise, parana is done after sunrise.

• A Shiva linga or image, and a plate or vessel for the abhishek
• Ganga jal; milk, curd, ghee, honey and sugar for the panchamrit and the four prahars
• Bilva (bel) leaves in threes, white flowers, dhatura and aak where offered, sandal paste, bhasma
• Rudraksha, a ghee lamp, incense, camphor, a conch and a bell
• Black sesame, fruit and dakshina for daan
• The Shiva Purana / Rudrashtadhyayi and the Maha Shivratri Vrat Katha

• Fast without grains, pulses or common salt for the day and night (nirjala where health allows).
• Keep the night's vigil without sleep; do not break the four-prahar worship.
• Truthful, gentle speech; no anger; brahmacharya for the day; no daytime sleep.
• Offer water and bilva above all; the rest is by capacity and regional custom.
• Stay in Shiva-smarana (japa, the Rudri, the katha) through the vigil.

Who should not keep this fast: Pregnant and nursing women, the ill, the elderly, children, and anyone with diabetes, kidney disease or a condition a waterless fast or a sleepless night would endanger should keep a phalahar fast, rest as needed, and consult a doctor. The vrat asks for devotion, not for harm.

• North India and the Jyotirlingas. Night-long queues and abhishek at Kashi Vishwanath, Mahakaleshwar (Ujjain), Somnath and Baidyanath; processions of Shiva as the bridegroom.
• Kashmir. Herath, the principal festival of the Kashmiri Pandits: several days around the Vatuk Bhairava puja, with walnuts soaked overnight and shared the next day as naveed (prasad).
• Tamil Nadu. At Tiruvannamalai the night is kept with Girivalam, the 14 km barefoot circumambulation of Arunachala hill; abhishek and the Lingodbhava darshan at midnight in Shiva temples.
• Kerala. Sivarathri at Aluva on the sandbank of the Periyar, with a night vigil and bali tarpana for ancestors the next morning.
• Nepal. Pashupatinath in Kathmandu: one of the largest gatherings, with sadhus, Naga ascetics and pilgrims from across the subcontinent.
• Himachal Pradesh. The week-long Mandi Shivratri fair: over two hundred village devtas brought in palanquin to pay respects at the Madho Rai and Bhootnath temples.

• Vrat food: sabudana khichdi and vada, kuttu / singhare ki puri, aloo — No grains, pulses or common salt; sendha namak (rock salt) is used. Eaten once, or as phalahar through the day.
• Thandai — A cold spiced milk, offered to Shiva and drunk by devotees; in some regions prepared with bhang, which is intoxicating and should only be taken knowingly.
• Fruit, makhana, dry fruit, and the parana meal — Light phalahar during the vigil; a normal sattvic meal after the parana the next morning.

Maha Shivratri is kept on the day when Chaturdashi of Phalguna Krishna paksha prevails at Nishita (the midpoint of the night). That day is Wednesday, 23 February 2028, and the Nishita Puja muhurat is from 12:10 AM to 12:58 AM (night of 23-24 February). Chaturdashi holds at Nishita only on this day.

at Nishita (the midpoint of the night)

Maha Shivratri is the Krishna Chaturdashi of Phalguna (Magha in the amanta reckoning): the fourteenth tithi of the dark fortnight and the night before Amavasya, when the Moon is a thin waning crescent 12°–24° short of conjunction with the Sun (elongation ~336°–348°, sidereal Lahiri). The puja is anchored to Nishita, the eighth muhurta near solar midnight, so the observed day is the one whose Nishita the Chaturdashi tithi covers. The Sun stands in sidereal Kumbha, near the late winter. The Gregorian date drifts about 11 days earlier each year and jumps back ~19 days in an adhika-month year.

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