Krishna Janmashtami or Janmashtami is celebrated all over the world by the Hindus especially in India. As per Hindu calendar it is celebrated on the 8th day of Krishna Paksha on the month of Bhadrapada, which falls on the English month of August or September. This year Krishna janmashtami is on 11 -12 August.
Janmashtami is very dear festival for Hindus, people celebrate janmashtami by fasting and praying in the temples, different states have different ways of celebrating Janmashtami. In Maharashtra people participate in dahi handi which is part of the festival, in some places there are competitions of kite flying. In Mathura the birth place of Krishna, it is celebrated with lot of joy and happiness by lighting the temples, dancing, singing devotional songs (bhajan) and praying together.
Celebrating the birth of lord Krishna and his victory over evil, people decorate god and temples and make sweets, does fast and take the blessings of Lord Krishna. But this year the celebration will be restricted up to an extent so that the spreading pandemic could not create an easy hotspot.
Mythology behind it
Krishna was 8th son of Vasudeva and Devaki , it is said that Shri Krishna’s uncle who was brother of his mother was the king of Mathura. He was an autocrat, an evil king who does not care about his people and used to torture them. It is said that when his sister got married “voice from the heaven” came which told him that the eighth child of Devaki will be the reason of his death, from that day he put his own sister and brother in law in a cell and killed all the seven children as soon as they were born. But when the eighth son took birth which was also the eighth avatar of lord Vishnu, his father Vasudeva took him to Gokul through Yamuna River to Nanda and Yashoda’s house. Where they celebrated the birth of Krishna and raised him as their own child.
During this occasion let us remember one of the quotes by lord Krishna;
“There are three gates to the self-destruction. Hell, Lust, Anger and Greed”