Festival · 2070
The portal of Festivals
Turn a card. Answer all three rightly and this portal is sealed in your sky. New riddles every morning.
May what you give today never run out, and may it find the person who needs it most.
दातव्यमिति यद्दानं दीयतेऽनुपकारिणे देशे काले च पात्रे च तद्दानं सात्त्विकं स्मृतम्
dātavyam iti yad dānaṁ dīyate 'nupakāriṇe / deśe kāle ca pātre ca tad dānaṁ sāttvikaṁ smṛtam
Its meaning
The gift given because it ought to be given, to one who can make no return, at the proper place and time and to a worthy person, is held to be sattvic.
Bhagavad Gita 17.20
When, for Bengaluru
12 May 2070
Shukla Dwitiya · until 9:11 AM
Kept on the day its tithi runs at midday (madhyahna).
Do
Give something today that is still good, to someone who will use it: clothes, a pot, a fan, a book.
Leave aside
Buying gold as if the day were about buying. The day is about giving.
Add your name and send the link. It opens as your wish, with the timing for their own city, the verse, and how to keep the day.
Wishing you a blessed Akshaya Tritiya
Every festival on its right day for Bengaluru, inside your phone's own calendar, each one opening its page here. It renews itself every year. No account needed.
For Outlook or any other calendar, add the copied link as a calendar from the internet. For another city, open this page for that city first.
A gentle reminder three days before each festival and on its morning, with its timing for your city.
The waxing Moon reaches its third day in Vaishakha, as the summer rises; it is counted among the few days that need no muhurta to be chosen.
'That which does not diminish.' The day is heavily sold as an auspicious time to buy gold. The tradition's actual claim is that what is given on this day does not diminish — the merchants inverted it.
3 stories the day keeps. Turn each card.
Akshaya means that which does not decay. The Puranic tradition says that what is given, chanted and offered on this day does not diminish. The claim was always about giving: water in the summer heat, grain, a pot, a fan, shade.
As the Puranic tradition keeps it.
Sudama, poor and ashamed of his poverty, went to see his childhood friend Krishna in Dvaraka, carrying only a handful of beaten rice wrapped in cloth. Krishna took it from him with joy and ate it. Sudama asked for nothing and returned home to find his family provided for. The tradition remembers the visit on this day.
Bhagavata Purana 10.80 to 10.81; the day as the tradition keeps it.
In the Jain tradition, Rishabhadeva, the first Tirthankara, wandered for over a year without anyone knowing how to offer alms to a renunciant. Prince Shreyansa understood, and offered him sugarcane juice. The day is kept as the giving that ended that long fast.
As the Jain tradition keeps it.
Often said
Gold bought today will multiply.
The root
The older claim is about giving, not buying. What the tradition says does not diminish is what leaves your hand for another. The day was never a sale.
Often said
Anything started today cannot fail.
The root
The day needs no muhurta, so many begin new work on it. That frees you to begin; it does not do the work for you. The beginning is blessed, the effort is still yours.
Free acts, done by you. Kept so far this year: 0 of 3.
Give something today that is still good, to someone who will use it: clothes, a pot, a fan, a book.
Set out a shallow bowl of water in the shade for birds and animals, and keep it filled through the summer.
Plant a tree or a sapling that will give shade to people you will never meet.
Each act is free and done by you. Keeping one writes it to your karma ledger with the day's panchang. Nothing here is ever bought, and no act is a remedy.
The Himalayan shrines
The temples of Gangotri and Yamunotri open for the year on this day, after the winter.
Puri, Odisha
The building of the chariots for the Ratha Yatra begins, and the Chandan Yatra, the festival of sandalwood, starts.
Simhachalam, Andhra Pradesh
At the Chandanotsavam, the sandal paste that covers the deity all year is removed and the deity's own form is seen on this one day.
Jain communities
Those who have kept the long varshitap fast complete it with sugarcane juice, as Rishabhadeva once did.
Kept on the day its tithi runs at midday (madhyahna).
The day is chosen by the moment the tradition reads its tithi at, and the times are that day's own, computed for this city. A festival-specific puja window is not printed: those rules differ by tradition and await a scholar's review.
The stories, their sources and the regional customs on this page await a scholar's review. The sky and the dates are computed for your city.