Maha Shivaratri

Date in 2026

Monday, 16 February 2026

Masa

Magha

Tithi

Krishna Chaturdasi

Duration

1 day and the night following

Observed in

All India

Significance

Maha Shivaratri is the great night of Shiva, and unlike almost every other festival in the calendar it is kept at night rather than by day. There are several accounts of what it commemorates and they are not in competition: it is the night of Shiva's marriage to Parvati; the night he performed the tandava; and the night he drank the halahala poison that rose from the churning of the ocean and held it in his throat, which turned blue and gave him the name Nilakantha.

The story most often told in households is the hunter's. A man benighted in the forest climbed a bilva tree to escape a tiger and, to keep himself awake through the night, plucked and dropped its leaves one by one. Beneath the tree, unknown to him, was a Shiva linga. He fasted without meaning to, kept vigil without meaning to, and offered bilva leaves without meaning to — and was granted liberation. The point of the story is not that ritual works mechanically. It is that the night itself is held to be potent, and that attention paid in it is not wasted even by someone who did not know what he was doing.

Practically, the observance is a fast and a vigil divided into four watches, with abhishekam performed in each. It is one of the very few observances kept across every region, sect and language of the subcontinent in recognisably the same form.

When it falls, and why

Maha Shivaratri falls on the chaturdashi — the fourteenth tithi — of the krishna paksha of Magha in the amanta reckoning of the south, which is the same day the purnimanta reckoning of the north calls the Phalguna krishna chaturdashi. The two names describe the identical night; only the month label differs.

In Gregorian terms this places it in late February or early March. The chaturdashi must prevail during nishita kala — the middle watch of the night, roughly around midnight — which is the operative rule, and it is why the observance can occasionally fall on the day before the one a simple sunrise reckoning would suggest. Every krishna chaturdashi through the year is a Masik Shivaratri; the Magha one is the maha, the great one.

Pooja vidhanam, step by step

1. 1

   Take the sankalpa at sunrise

   Bathe at dawn, wear clean clothes — many wear white — and state the sankalpa to keep the fast and the vigil. The fast begins now and runs to sunrise tomorrow.

2. 2

   Prepare the linga and the offerings

   Clean the puja space and place the linga on a base that lets water drain. Arrange bilva leaves in threes, white flowers, and the six abhishekam substances within reach.

3. 3

   First watch — abhishekam with milk

   Beginning after sunset, bathe the linga with milk while reciting Om Namah Shivaya. Offer bilva leaves with the smooth side down. The first watch is for the earth element.

4. 4

   Second watch — curd

   Bathe the linga with curd. Offer bilva and white flowers, and recite the Rudram or the Mahamrityunjaya mantra. Do not sleep between the watches.

5. 5

   Third watch — ghee

   Bathe the linga with ghee. This is the nishita kala watch, around midnight, and it is the most important of the four. Offer bilva, light a ghee lamp, and continue the japa.

6. 6

   Fourth watch — honey and water

   Bathe the linga with honey and then with water. Offer the last bilva leaves as the night ends, and recite the Shiva Tandava Stotram or the Lingashtakam.

7. 7

   Break the fast

   After sunrise the following morning, complete the final arati, offer naivedya, and break the fast with the prasadam. The parana is at dawn, not at midnight.

Samagri checklist

What to gather beforehand. Where something is not available, offer what you have — the intention carries.

• Shiva linga, or a picture of Shiva
• Bilva (maredu) leaves — in threes, undamaged
• Milk, curd, ghee, honey, sugar (panchamrita)
• Water, and Ganga water if available
• White flowers — especially datura and arka
• Vibhuti (sacred ash) and rudraksha
• Sandal paste, kumkum, akshata
• Camphor, incense, ghee lamp and cotton wicks
• Coconut, betel leaves and nuts, fruit
• Dhatura fruit and flowers, if available

The vrat katha

A hunter named Suswara went into the forest to hunt and, caught by nightfall with a tiger below him, climbed a bilva tree. To stay awake and alert he plucked its leaves and let them fall. Below the tree, buried and unknown to him, was a Shiva linga.

Through the night he fasted, because he had no food; he kept vigil, because he was afraid; and he offered bilva leaves through all four watches, because he needed something to do with his hands. At dawn the tiger left. When Suswara eventually died, Shiva's messengers came for him rather than Yama's, and he was granted liberation.

Some tellings add that the tiger too was released, having waited beneath the tree all night in the presence of the linga. The katha is read on Shivaratri night between the watches, and its point is repeated in every version: the night is potent, and grace is not proportionate to the worshipper's competence.

How it differs by region

• In Andhra Pradesh and Telangana the night is kept with jagarana at Srisailam, Kaleshwaram and Draksharamam among others, and the linga is bathed in each of the four jamas. Many families keep a strict fast without water.
• In Tamil Nadu the observance centres on Annamalaiyar at Tiruvannamalai, where the Karthigai Deepam tradition also runs, and girivalam — circumambulating the hill — draws very large numbers.
• In Karnataka it is kept at Gokarna and Murudeshwar; in Maharashtra at the jyotirlingas of Bhimashankar, Trimbakeshwar and Grishneshwar, with the fast broken the next morning.
• In Nepal and the eastern states, Pashupatinath is the centre, and the festival draws sadhus from across the subcontinent.
• In the purnimanta states of the north the same night is named Phalguna krishna chaturdashi rather than Magha — a naming difference only, not a difference of date.

Common questions

Slokas