[Advaita-l] Maha-Sivaratri Date for 2007

[Anand Hudli]

S Jayanarayanan wrote:

>What is the correct date for Maha-Sivaratri this year? There is a conflict 
>among US-based (Feb. 15th) and India-based sources (Feb. >16th). Does it 
>mean that US and India adopt different dates for this festival?

This year, the mAgha- krishna-paksha-chaturdashi titthi starts at 1:14 AM 
IST on the 16th and ends at 12:01 AM on the 17th, as per the sUrya-siddhAnta 
(traditional) calculation. These times when converted to EST (Eastern) and 
PST (Pacific) are:

start - 2:44 PM on the 15th (EST), 11:44 AM on the 15th (PST)

end - 1:31 PM on the 16th (EST), 10:31 AM on the 16th (PST)

The mahAshivarAtri observance requires the chaturdashI tithi to prevail at 
midnight (more precisely nishItha-kAla). Therefore, this observance falls on 
the 16th in India. Regarding the US, there are two opinions, one that 
follows the converted tithi times and adjusts the date accordingly, if 
necessary, and the other that simply follows Indian dates, without any 
conversion of tithi times. Following the first method, we get the 15th as 
the date for shivarAtri while the second method recommends the 16th.

Anand

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