[Advaita-l] Maha-Sivaratri Date for 2007

[S Jayanarayanan]

--- Anand Hudli <anandhudli at hotmail.com> wrote:

> 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.
> 

Thanks for the clarification. I think it is best to follow SVBF for
celebrating festivals in America, as their calendar accurately
reflects the festival's date in the USA.

Regards,
Kartik


 
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