Vat Savitri (Purnima) 2028: Date, Vrat Vidhi & Significance

Dressed as brides in green or red with full solah-shringar, women fast (many nirjala), take water, roli, rice, flowers, soaked gram and fruit to a banyan tree, water its roots, tie a raw thread around the trunk in five or seven or 108 rounds, circle it that many times, and hear the Savitri-Satyavan katha. Bamboo hand-fans are waved before the tree and the vrat, and a suhaag gift is exchanged.

It is a Purnima counterpart to the North Indian Jyeshtha Amavasya Vat Savitri — the difference is purnimanta vs amanta month-reckoning, so both fall about a fortnight apart on the same lunar month. Maharashtra, Gujarat, Goa, Karnataka and Odisha keep the Purnima; the Hindi belt keeps the Amavasya.

Savitri chose Satyavan as her husband knowing a sage's word that he would die in a year. On the fated day she followed Yama as he carried off Satyavan's soul, and would not turn back; her wisdom and devotion so pleased Yama that he granted boon after boon — her blind father-in-law's sight and kingdom, sons for her own father, and at last, when she asked for sons of her own body, the life of Satyavan, since she could have none without him.

Source: Mahabharata, Vana Parva — the Savitri and Satyavan story

The Savitri-Satyavan story is in the Vana Parva of the Mahabharata; the Vata Savitri vrata is set out in the Skanda and Bhavishya Puranas and the vrata nibandhas, which give both the Amavasya and Purnima datings, followed in different regions by the month-reckoning convention.

• Mahabharata, Vana Parva — the Savitri and Satyavan story
• Wikipedia — Vata Savitri

1. In Maharashtra, Gujarat and Karnataka, married women keep Vat Purnima on the Jyeshtha full moon.
2. They worship the banyan tree, winding raw cotton thread around the trunk while circling it seven or 108 times.
3. The story of Savitri, who won back her husband Satyavan's life from Yama, is read beneath the tree.

• Maharashtra, Gujarat, Goa, Karnataka, Odisha. Vat Purnima — the banyan worship and nirjala fast on the Jyeshtha full moon.
• North India. The same vrat is kept on the Jyeshtha Amavasya as Vat Savitri Amavasya (see the separate entry).

• Soaked chana and mango — Offered to the tree and eaten to break the fast.

Vat Savitri / Vat Purnima is kept on the day when Purnima of Jyeshtha Shukla paksha prevails at sunrise. That day is Wednesday, 7 June 2028. Purnima holds at sunrise only on this day.

at sunrise

Vat Purnima is Jyeshtha Shukla Purnima — the full moon of Jyeshtha, in May or June, about a fortnight after the Jyeshtha Amavasya on which the North keeps Vat Savitri. The two datings are the same vrat under the purnimanta and amanta month systems. The worship is done in the forenoon.

A lunar date: Purnima 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.