Mahashivratri

Mahāśivarātri, “the great night of Śiva”, is the most widely kept of all Śaiva observances. Every lunar month has its own Śivarātri on the dark 14th; this one, at the end of winter, is the great one. Unlike most festivals it is kept at night and in quiet: a fast, a vigil, and worship of the liṅga through the hours of darkness.

Tradition gives more than one reason for the night, and they sit side by side. The first is the liṅgodbhava: Śiva appeared before Brahmā and Viṣṇu as an endless pillar of light whose top and bottom neither could find. The story is told in the Śiva Purāṇa and the Liṅga Purāṇa, and tradition holds that this night marks that appearance, which is why the liṅga is the centre of the worship.

The second reason is popular tradition rather than a single text: in much of India the night is celebrated as the wedding of Śiva and Pārvatī, and many temples hold a wedding procession. The Purāṇas tell the wedding at length, but the link to this particular date is a matter of regional custom, and we give it as such.

The third is the hunter's story, told in the Śiva Purāṇa (Koṭirudra Saṃhitā, chapter 40) to show the worth of the vow. A hunter, hungry and waiting through the night in a bilva tree for game, lets water and bilva leaves fall on a liṅga below in each watch of the night. Without meaning to, he has fasted, kept awake and worshipped; his heart turns to compassion and he lets the deer go. The text's point is that even an unintended observance of this night is not wasted.

What the three share is the sense of a night set apart for Śiva. People keep it in many ways, from a full fast and vigil at a temple to a lamp and a few quiet repetitions of the mantra at home.