The Janmashtami.Lord Krishna's Birthday.

Janmastami.

Lord Krishna Janmashtami falls on Monday, August 22, 2012 this year.

Lord Krishna took birth at midnight on the ashtami or the 8th day of the Krishnapaksha  in the month of Shravan. This auspicious day is called Janmashtami. Indian as well as Western scholars have now accepted the period between 3200 and 3100 BC as the period in which Lord Krishna lived on earth.

Lord Krishna’s birth-day on the eighth day of the dark fortnight of month Shravana is celebrated

every year with great pomp and faith by devotees through out the country.

The eighth also has significance in the Lord Krishna legend that he is the 8th of the 10  enumerated avatar, incarnation of Lord Vishnu and the eighth child of  mother, Devaki.

It is a rare  opportunity to personally bathe the deities of Radha and Krishna in the ceremony known as Maha Kalash Abhishek.  Friends and relatives are being  invited to bathe their Lordships, feast on a special dinner of Maha Prasad, and receive a Kalash filled with charnamrita, plus several other transcendental gifts.

Most importantly, by performing service to Lord Sri Krishna with love and devotion on Janmashtami,  we certainly receive His special blessings

The occasion is observed with particular splendour in Mathura and Vrindavana, depicting the scenes of Lord Krishna's childhood and early youth. The preceding day devotees keep a vigil and fast until midnight, the traditional hour of his birth. Then the image of Lord Krishna is bathed in water and milk, dressed in new clothes, and worshipped. Temples and household shrines are decorated with leaves and flowers, sweetmeats are first offered to the god and then distributed as prasada,  to all the members of the household.

The devotees of Lord Krishna commemorate the events of his birth by preparing elaborate representations of Mathura, where he was born, the Yamuna River, over which he was transported to safety, and Gokul, the ancient Vraja, the scene of his childhood, using small images of the god, the other participants, and the animals and birds of the forest. Pots of milk are hung from tall poles in the streets, and men form human pyramids to reach and break the pots--this in imitation of Krishna's childhood play with the friends, when they stole the curds hung out of reach by their mothers. The festival is also a time for group singing and dancing, in both the folk and the classical traditions.