Indian Lunar Religious Holidays

[jayabarathi]

At 12:22 AM 7/25/99 EDT, you wrote:
>Dear Indologists,
>
>Can someone tell me if it is always the case that if the end time of a tithi
>of a Hindu lunar holiday occurs after sunrise on a particular solar day that
>the holiday is celebrated on that day?  I am trying to find out if there are
>any exceptions?  For example if the end of the tithi of Shivaratri, Guru
>Purnima or Ganesha Jayanti occured shortly after sunrise on a particular day
>(with the bulk occuring in the previous solar day) would it be celebrated
>that day or the previous day?

        Dear Sir,

                It depends on the rituals or ceremony that
        have to be observed. Usually it has become the custom
        among Indian calender-men to confer the thithi that
        was presiding at the sun-rise, to that particular day.
                Thus, we may have the calender showing a
        particular thithi which was prsenting itself just for a
        few ghatikas during sun-rise.
                If the ritual or ceremony is to take place
        in the night, the thithi has to be present at night.
                For example, Sankatahara Chathurthi is
        observed during the  Krishnapaksha chaturthi. In it,
        the fast is broken at moon-rise. That takes place after
        10-30p.m. The important thing is to observe/see the
        4th waning moon and perform the puja. Hence,
        Chaturthi has to  be present only after sunset.
                The same thing would go for Navarathri
        also. The thithi shuld be present at night-fall, i.e.,
        Vijaya Muhurtham.
                For Amavasya, mid-noon is very imporant.
                You are correct. In the case of Sankata hara
        Chathurthi, if the thithi starts only later in the day, the
        fast has to begin early in the morning, i.e., Thrithiyai.
        If we wait for the next morning, which is still Chathurthi,
        to start fasting, we will erroneously end the fast at
        10-30p.m. on that day, which will be Panchami by then.

        Regards

        Jayabarathi

Also do Hindu temples in North America ever
>adjust the timing of their celebrations to coincide with the celebrations in
>India?
>
>Can the calendar published in "The Indian Astronomical Ephemeris" based on
>the Calendar Reform Committee (1957)be taken as giving the generally
>accepted dates for religious holidays.  Are there cases where the
>traditional calendric practices give different results and communities that
>follow these instead?
>
>Also can someone give me the address where I can get a Panchanga for all of
>year 2000.  I have been able to find several for 1999 but none already out
>for 2000?
>
>Thank you in advance,
>
>Harry Spier
>
>
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