PARV 29 OF 30 · PHAGUN
महाशिवरात्रि
Phagun Krishna Chaturdashi (February–March)
"बेल पत्र, गंगाजल, हर हर महादेव"
Katha · The story
On this night Shiva married Parvati; on this night, the Puranas also say, he first appeared as the endless pillar of light that neither Brahma nor Vishnu could find the end of; and on this night he drank the poison of the churning ocean to save the world and held it in his throat. The village katha is the hunter's: a hunter trapped in a bel tree all night by a tiger, dropping leaves and drops of water to keep awake, unknowingly worshipped a Shivling beneath, and was saved and blessed. Nothing is needed to please Shiva but a bel leaf, water and staying awake.
In Malinagar the Shivling at the temple is bathed through the night with Gangajal, milk and bel, the bhajan goes on till dawn, and the Shivratri mela is where the year's first gol-gappa stall appears.
Mahatva · Significance
Shivratri is the last great night of winter and the beginning of the Holi season. The fast and the jagran are for Shiva as the simplest god, pleased by a leaf, and for marriages: unmarried girls keep the vrat for a husband, married women for the household.
"शिव शंकर को जिसने पूजा, उसका ही उद्धार हुआ"
A line everyone at the festival knows
Vidhi · How it is done in Malinagar
Sabudana khichdi, fruit, thandai; after the fast, puri and kaddu.
The bel tree by the temple is the one whose leaves have been offered every Shivratri for longer than the temple's records.