Māsika Śivarātri

When it falls

The fourteenth lunar day (caturdaśī) of the dark fortnight, once a lunar month, kept through the night. The one in Māgha is Mahā Śivarātri and is not counted among these; the other eleven are the monthly ones.

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

The story

The great night is the one everybody knows, and the monthly one is what makes it a practice rather than an anniversary. The dark fourteenth is the last night before the moon disappears, and the tradition answers the thinnest moon of every month the same way it answers the thinnest of the year: by staying awake.

The Śiva Purāṇa makes no distinction between them in what is done — only in scale. What is kept through four watches in Māgha is kept through one or two in the other months, by whoever keeps it.

For many it is the trial run that makes the great night possible, and for some it is the whole of their practice.

How the day is kept

• A fast through the day, and a vigil for at least the first watch of the night.
• The liṅga is bathed with milk, curd, honey, ghee and water, and dressed in bel leaves — the same abhiṣeka as the great night, done once rather than four times.
• Oṃ Namaḥ Śivāya is chanted and the Rudram recited where there is someone to recite it.
• Śiva temples keep the night open; the crowds are a fraction of Mahā Śivarātri, which is why many prefer it.

More fasts and vigils