Kartik Purnima

Culture of origin: Hindu · Cultural

Holiday sources: Hinduism

Kartik Purnima ends the sacred month of Kartika. A holy bath (Kartika snana) is prescribed, most auspiciously at Pushkar or in the Ganges at Varanasi, where it is the most popular bathing day, and the fairs that began on Prabodhini Ekadashi at Pandharpur and Pushkar end on it. As Tripurari Purnima it celebrates Shiva destroying the demon Tripurasura and his three cities with a single arrow, which the gods marked with a festival of lights, Dev Deepawali; it is also kept as the day Matsya, Vishnu's fish avatar, appeared. Lamps are kept lit through the night in homes and Shiva temples.