India is a country where a lot of festivals are celebrated. It has been cited by outsiders as a land of festivals.

Every alternate day, some festival gets celebrated in one of the Indian regions.

As there are 29 states in India and nearly every state has its own culture and traditions, many of the festivals get celebrated by people of just one particular state and chances are, the other ones are not even aware of that specific festival.

In spite of that, there are a few Indian festivals that are celebrated by a large majority of people, from all Indian states equally joyfully, enthusiastically, and respectfully.

Janmashtami that we are celebrating today is among such festivals.

The date of this auspicious festival of Janmashtami alters every year but one thing remains common, it always gets celebrated during the month of monsoon.

Janmashtami has many names given to it including Krishna Janmashtami, Gokulashtami, Krishnashtami, and Sri Krishna Jayanti.

Shri Krishna is believed to be the eighth avatar of Lord Vishnu while the seventh is Bhagwan Rama, and the ninth is Siddhartha Gautama or Gautama Buddha.

Lord Krishna is among the most popular and known gods all around the world.

The primary reason for Lord Krishna’s vast adoration is the International Society of Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), a community that has around 800 centers and followers in a range of millions from all around the world.

In what way does Janmashtami gets celebrated?

In India, Janmashtami is a festival celebrated with great wholesomeness.

It is celebrated by people of all ages from the elderly to young little children.

For Krishna Janmashtami, people start preparing weeks earlier and sometimes months.

They organize dramatic plays with some young little boy playing Krishna and a girl playing Radha.

 Aside from that, they build artificial homes for Lord Krishna that people can see, and the decoration of those homes continues until the day of Janmashtami.

Furthermore, on Janmashtami, people offer prayers to Lord Krishna and show him gratitude for his blessings on their lives.

Why do we celebrate the bright festival of Janmashtami?

We celebrate the bright festival of Janmashtami to celebrate the birthday of Shri Krishna.

Lord Krishna in his human avatar was the son of Vasudeva and Devaki.

Kansa was Lord Krishna’s uncle from his mother's side and he was the eighth son of Vasudeva and Devaki.

When Kansa got informed that he will be killed by one of the sons of Devaki, he locked Devaki and Vasudeva both so that he could get every child of hers killed by him.

And Kansa did the same, he killed the seven children of Devaki that were born before Krishna.

As Krishna was a super special child, Devaki started listening to the voices of the divine soon after his birth.

And as the divine instructed, Devaki took Shri Krishna on his head and walked to Vrindavan from Mathura where she granted the responsibility of his son to Nand and Yashoda and they both took care of him in Vrindavan.

How do we celebrate the festival of Janmashtami in India?

Janmashtami is a festival that does not get celebrated just in India.

It gets celebrated with much enthusiasm in American countries like the United States of America and Canada and in European cities like Paris.

Although it is true that the festival of Janmashtami gets celebrated less joyfully abroad than it does in India, the country where Lord Krishna was born.

It is common for people in Indian streets to hang a matki above them and have one person stand over them and break that matki.

Other ways people celebrate Janmashtami in India are:

Keeping a fast for the whole day

People on the day of Janmashtami keep a fast for the whole day and only break that when the Janmashtami period gets ended.

Some people choose to not eat anything while others eat only Satvik food.

Pooja Ceremony

People perform pooja ceremonies at temples and some people do that in their homes.

People remain awake all night and do kirtans and bhajans for Lord Krishna.

The places where Krishna Janmashtmi gets celebrated with the maximum level of zest are Mathura and Vrindavan, both of them are situated in Uttar Pradesh.

To conclude, we would like to pray to Lord Krishna that he may bless you on this auspicious day of Janmashtmi.

Happy Janmashtami to all of you.