Mahashivratri is a Hindu festival, celebrated every year in the honour of Lord Shiva. It comes in February or March in the late winters. This festival is the convergence of Shiva and Shakti. Though, it’s expressly a part of the Shaivism tradition of Hinduism but celebrated by all with lots of enthusiasm and devoutness. On this auspicious festival, all the Shiva devotees worship the Lord to overcome darkness and sadness from their lives.
Unlike other Hindu festivals, Mahashivratri is celebrated at night. All the Shiva temples are decorated beautifully with colourful lights and flowers.
Mandi Shivaratri Fair is the most popular celebration spot of Mahashivratri and held for 7 days The devotees from various far places come to visit this fair. It’s believed that more than 200 goddesses and deities are assembled here on Mahashivratri.
The town is situated on the banks of the Beas River and one of the oldest city in Himachal Pradesh. It’s popularly famous with the name “cathedral of temples” that more than 81 different temples in its periphery.
Mahashivratri is a very important festival in Kashmir Shaivism and celebrated as the marriage anniversary of Lord Shiva and Parvati. The festival starts 3-4 days before Mahashivratri and last after the two days of the festival. The other states like Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh and Telangana celebrates Mahashivratri with great pomp and fanfare.
Although Shiva is worshipped in the entire country, central India has the highest Shiva devotees.
Mahakaleshwar Temple, Ujjain of Ujjain Shiva is considered one of the most sacred and revered religious places. On the day of Mahashivratri, millions of devotees gather here to worship the Lord and seek his blessings.
Tilwara Ghat (Jabalpur City, Tilwara) of Jabalpur and Jeonara Village, Seoni (Jeonara, Seoni) are other religious places where the festival of Shivaratri is celebrated with great pomp.
Shiva Linga is worshipped in Kashi Vishwanath Temple (Varanasi, Vishwanath Temple) of Kashi, Varanasi, which is considered a symbol of the pillar of light and Shiva is regarded as the light of supreme knowledge.
Classical music and dance are performed at many places on the night of Mahashivratri. On this day, married women fasts for their husbands’ longevity as well as the unmarried girls to get blessed with the husband like Lord Shiva.
Stories Related to the Mahashivratri
There are many stories found in the Puranas, depicting the origin of Mahashivratri. Below, we have mentioned the top stories from them-
Story #1. Why did Lord Shiva call Neelkanth?
Once upon a time, during Samudra Manthan, a pot of poison has emerged out of the ocean. Both the Gods and demons participated in it and the poison made them horrified. The poison was so powerful and capable to destroy the entire world.
All the Gods went to Lord Shiva to ask for help. The Lord drank the whole pot of deathly poison but held it in his throat instead of swallowing. He took this daring and deadly step to save the world from its evil effects. This turned his throat blue and given him the title of Neelkanth.
Story #2. Why devotees worship whole night on Maha Shivratri?
Once upon a time, there was a tribal man. He was a great devotee of Lord Shiva. Once he went to the forest to collect firewood. As he got late while returning home, the night falls and forgot the way.
As the night falls, the growls of wild animals were started coming all around. He climbed onto the nearest tall tree to take shelter till the day-break. He was afraid, that he would doze and fall off the tree.
He devised an idea to stay awake, he decided to pluck one leaf from the tree and drop it down. He did it a whole night by chanting the name of Lord Shiva. It turned dawn while doing so.
It was a vine tree where he was sitting. When he looked down, he saw a Linga on which he had dropped a thousand vine leaves all night. This unwitting all-night worship pleased Lord Shiva and blessed him with the divine bliss.
Devotees hear this story on Mahashivratri night and fast the entire day. After the narrative ending, they receive the offerings.
Story #3. Why Ketaki / Kewra flower is not used in Lord Shiva Worship?
In the Hindu religion, aromatic flowers are used in the worship of all deities. Do you know that Ketki / Kevda Phul is not used in the worship of Shiva? Let’s know why?
According to another story of Hindu Puranas, the other triads of Hindu Gods Vishnu and Brahma once had a fight over the point of superiority. Both of them claiming more powerful than each other. This made others frightened and went to Shiva for help.
Lord Shiva tried to sort the matter with the mutual understanding but none of them agreed on it. In the end, Shiva built himself a huge column of fire between Brahma and Vishnu. He decided that who finds the end of this fire (the end of Lingam) will be the winner and supreme as well.
Both Dev Vishnu and Brahma Ji set out to find the end of the fire to show their primacy. Brahma Ji appeared as a swan and flew upwards to find the end of the fire and Vishnu Ji appeared as Varaha and went towards the earth to find the end of the fire, as decided.
But there was no end to the fire as Shiva Ji did it just to make them realize the futility of their fight. Then Brahma Ji saw that a Ketaki or Kewra flower is falling from above. Then Brahma Ji asked Kewra flower that – where are you coming from? Kewra flower replied, “from the top end of this fire”.
Brahma Ji took the Ketaki flower and took it as proof. He told Vishnu Ji that he had reached the end also brought Ketaki / Kewra flowers from there. The flower also supported him in this falsehood.
After knowing this lie of Brahma, Shiva was very angry and appeared there. He cursed Brahma Ji with strong criticism and said that nobody will worship him.
Shiva also punished the Ketaki or Kewra flower for supporting the falsehood, saying that Ketaki flowers will never be used in worship. Ketaki flowers will be offered to Shiva only on Mahashivratri.
As the day was the dark half of the 14th half of the month of Phalgun and Shiva had dressed as a lingam, this day is celebrated as Mahashivratri.
