Dhanteras

When it falls

The thirteenth lunar day (trayodaśī) of the dark half of Kārttika, two days before Dīpāvali, in October or November. It opens the five-day festival.

The Phala almanac gives the exact day for your own city; the lunar and solar rules above are what it computes from.

The story

Dhana is wealth and teras is the thirteenth day. It is also the birthday of Dhanvantari, the physician of the gods, who rose from the churning of the ocean holding the pot of amṛta (the nectar of immortality). India's National Āyurveda Day is fixed to it.

The story told to children is of King Hima's son, doomed to die of a snake bite on the fourth day of his marriage. His wife heaped gold and silver at the door, lit lamps all round it, and sang all night. Yama came as a serpent, was dazzled by the metal and stopped to listen to the songs, and left at dawn without his prey. A lamp for Yama is still set outside the house tonight.

How the day is kept

• Metal is bought: a vessel of steel, brass or silver at the least, gold and silver coins where the family can, since new metal brought home today is held to invite Lakṣmī.
• A lamp (Yama dīpa) is lit at the door and left facing south through the night, for a year without an untimely death in the house.
• Dhanvantari is worshipped for health; Lakṣmī and Kubera, the treasurer of the gods, for wealth.
• Markets stay open past midnight; it is the biggest single day of the year for gold and appliance sales in India.

More festivals of light