Maha Shivratri
Maha Shivratri is a Hindu festival celebrated annually in February/March to honour Lord Shiva. Shivaratri falls in every luni-solar month of the Hindu calendar. On the 13th night/14th day of the month Phalguna during late winter in February/March and before the arrival of spring, marks Maha Shivaratri which means the Great Night of Shiva. This year it is observed on February 13. Maha Shivratri is a National Holiday in Nepal and celebrated widely in temples all over the country and in India. On this day devotees keep awake all night by remembering Shiva and chanting prayers, fasting, doing Yoga, and meditating on ethics and virtues such as self-restraint, honesty, noninjury to others, forgiveness, and the discovery of Shiva. It is a major religious festival in Hinduism which marks a remembrance of overcoming darkness and ignorance in life and the world. Many visit Shiva temples and go on pilgrimage to Jyotir lingams. In Kashmir Shaivism, the festival is called Har-Ratri or pronounced simpler Herath or Herath by Shiva faithful of the Kashmir region. Maha Shivratri is believed to be the night when Shiva performs the divine dance of creation, preservation and destruction. According to another legend, this is the night when Shiva and Parvati got married. The festival may have originated around the 5th century CE and is mentioned in several Puranas. So this festival is celebrated by Hindus for thousands of years for its significance.
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