Purnima: Dates, What, Why, How

What it is

Purnima is the full-moon day, the fifteenth tithi of the bright half of each lunar month. Many families keep a light fast on it, worship Vishnu as Satyanarayan with the Satyanarayan katha, and break the fast after they see the full moon in the evening. Others keep the day with an early bath, in a river if one is near, and with gifts of food and clothes to people in need.

Some of the best-known festivals are Purnimas: Guru Purnima in Ashadha, Raksha Bandhan on the Shravana Purnima, Sharad (Kojagari) Purnima in Ashvina, Kartik Purnima, and Holi on the Phalguna Purnima. Each of these has its own guide. This page is for the full moon of every month.

Why it is kept

The Satyanarayan katha. The katha that many families read on Purnima begins with the sage Narada. He saw people on earth born again and again, and suffering, and he asked Vishnu for the simplest way to help them. Vishnu told him of the vow of Satyanarayan, God as truth: an evening worship, with family and friends, of a sweet offering made of flour, banana, ghee, milk and sugar, and the reading of the katha. Then the stories follow. A poor brahmin of Kashi, who lived by begging, met Vishnu in the form of an old brahmin and learned the worship. He kept it, his life changed, and he kept it every month after that. A woodcutter saw him at worship, asked about it, and kept it too. A merchant named Sadhu promised to keep the worship when his daughter Kalavati was born, and again at her wedding, and each time he put it off. His troubles began when he forgot his word, and they ended when his wife and daughter kept the worship at home and he himself asked for pardon. The katha says that whoever keeps the worship with faith is helped; that is the katha's own claim, told here as its claim. Its lesson, as families tell it, is simple: keep your word, and share what you have.

The printed telling. B. A. Gupte's Hindu Holidays and Ceremonials (1916) gives the katha in full and names its source as the Reva Khanda of the Skanda Purana. Gupte's telling says the worship may be done on any day; at its end the merchant keeps the worship on every full moon. Many families choose Purnima, and many temples hold it every full moon.

An old fortnightly rite. Long before the katha, the full moon and the new moon were the two great days of the household fire. Sir Monier Monier-Williams (1891) describes how the head of each family set his work aside at every full moon and new moon and, with his wife, made the offering of the fortnight.

The texts behind the story

• Hindu Holidays and Ceremonials, with dissertations on origin, folklore and symbols, by B. A. Gupte (Calcutta: Thacker, Spink, 1916) ("Satya Narayan", pp. 196–204 (leaves n251–n259): the katha in full, with its source given as the Reva Khanda of the Skanda Purana, chapter V)
• Brâhmanism and Hindûism; or, Religious Thought and Life in India, by Sir Monier Monier-Williams, fourth edition (New York: Macmillan, 1891) (p. 367 (leaf n402): the fortnightly offering of the household at every new moon (darsa) and full moon (paurnamasa))

When it is kept

The Purnima fast is kept on the day on which Purnima is present at moonrise at your location, because the fast is broken after the moon is seen. When Purnima begins before that evening's moonrise, the fast can fall on the day that began as Chaturdashi. If Purnima holds moonrise on two evenings, the first is taken; if on neither, the day whose sunrise has Purnima. Bathing and charity (snana-dana) follow the day on which Purnima is present at sunrise, so when the two days differ Pujadeep shows both: the fast day and the day for bathing and charity. This is the rule the Pujadeep calendar uses, as published calendars do.

What the words mean: Purnima and Amavasya

Traditions and regional customs

• Fast: Purnima at moonrise; first evening when both, sunrise day when neither
• Bathing and charity (snana-dana): Purnima at sunrise, shown as a second date when it differs
• Named Purnimas with their own guides: Guru Purnima, Raksha Bandhan, Sharad Purnima, Kartik Purnima, Holi

Why the day can differ

Moonrise and sunrise are local, so the fast day can differ between cities, and a city abroad can keep it a day before or after India. Some families fast on the sunrise day instead, by their own custom or their temple's calendar. Some South Indian calendars call the day Pournami.

How to keep it at home

1. In the morning, bathe and make a sankalpa for the fast. If your family keeps snana-dana, give food, clothes or money to someone in need on the day Pujadeep shows for it.
2. In the evening, set up a small altar with a picture of Vishnu or Satyanarayan, a kalash of water with mango leaves, a lamp and incense. Offer tulsi leaves, flowers, fruit and the sweet prasad (sheera or panjiri, often with banana).
3. Read or listen to the Satyanarayan katha with family and friends, then sing the aarti. Many families sing Om Jai Jagdish Hare.
4. When the moon has risen, look at the full moon, offer water (arghya) to it, share the prasad and break the fast with a simple meal.

Fasting

The fast is by choice. Many keep it with fruit and milk until the moon is seen; some take one meal in the day; some keep no fast and only the evening worship. Anyone who is pregnant, nursing, diabetic, unwell, elderly or on regular medicine should talk to a doctor before fasting.

Food

The Satyanarayan prasad is made in equal measures of semolina or wheat flour, ghee, sugar and milk, with sliced banana; some families add tulsi, dry fruit or panchamrit. After moonrise, a simple vegetarian meal.

Prayers read at this time

• Om Jai Jagdish Hare

For children

A poor man in the old city of Kashi had almost nothing to eat. One day a kind old man stopped and told him about a simple evening prayer: invite your friends, make a sweet dish, tell a story about God, and share. The poor man did it, and his life grew happier, so he did it every month. A woodcutter saw the prayer, joined in, and began to do it too. That is why, on many full-moon evenings, families sit together, tell the Satyanarayan story and share a sweet.

Something to do together

Find tonight's moonrise time in Pujadeep's panchang for your city. At that time go outside together, look for the full moon, and each say one thing you want to share with someone this month.

Festivals and holy days, told for children

Sources

• Pujadeep calendar rule purnima-vrat and its sunrise-day alternative for snana-dana.
• Hindu Holidays and Ceremonials, with dissertations on origin, folklore and symbols, by B. A. Gupte (Calcutta: Thacker, Spink, 1916) ("Satya Narayan", pp. 196–204 (leaves n251–n259))
• Brâhmanism and Hindûism; or, Religious Thought and Life in India, by Sir Monier Monier-Williams, fourth edition (New York: Macmillan, 1891) (p. 367 (leaf n402))

Related guides

• Guru Purnima (Vyasa Purnima)
• Sharad Purnima (Kojagari Purnima)
• Kartik Purnima
• Amavasya (New Moon Day)