Maha Shivratri – Hindu festival in India

About Maha Shivratri

Shivratri, also known as Maha Shivratri is a popular Hindu festival in India celebrated to worship Lord Shiva—husband of Goddess Parvati who according to Hindu mythology lived in Kailash.

The festival is celebrated generally in the first week of March and thousands of devotees pay their tribute to Lord Shiva.

Devotees keep day and night fasts and go to Shiva temples, giving the sacred Shiva Linga a holy bath with ingredients like honey, water, and milk.

It is believed in Hindu traditions that a dedicated and devoted worshipper of Lord Shiva who sincerely performs all the rituals during Mahashivratri, attains moksha—that is, freedom from the vicious cycle of life and birth and is ushered to the heavenly abode of Lord Shiva where s/he can finally be at peace.

While married women pursue all the rituals during Shivratri to appease Goddess Parvati, dedicated wife of Lord Shiva, so as to attain a blissful marital life with no intricacies, unmarried women keep fast and follow the rituals to get an ideal husband like Lord Shiva.