Vasant Panchami 2024: Saraswati Puja, Vasant Panchami or Basant Panchami is widely celebrated in India. Saraswati is the goddess of knowledge. Here is a look at all you need to know about the date, history, significance, and celebration of Vasant Panchami 2024 and what time is muhurat for performing Saraswati puja this year.
It's the festival of spring and people who perform this usually wake up early on the Vasanti Panchami day, and don yellow clothes. Students worship their books. People also do alpona (rangoli) is done with a paste of rice flour and water. After the prayers, people distribute sweets and fruits in the neighbourhood.
This year Vasant Panchami shall be observed on February 14. The Panchami tithi shall start at 02:41 PM on February 13 and will continue till 12:09 PM on February 14 2024. The full day is considered auspicious, and the main mahurat time for doing the puja is considered in the afternoon.
This year, the following timings are to be observed:
Vasant Panchami Muhurat – 07:01 AM to 12:35 PM
Vasant Panchami Madhyahna Moment – 12:35 PM
Panchami Tithi Begins – 02:41 PM on 13 February 2024
Panchami Tithi Ends – 12:09 PM on 14 February 2024.
History of the Festival
Saraswati Puja is dedicated to Goddess Saraswati the goddess of knowledge, music and art. On this day, the people conduct puja, and seek wisdom and knowledge in blessings. Some communities have the ritual of offering newly bought pens and notebooks to the goddess so that they are blessed and anyone who uses them achieves success in education.
Saraswati is also the goddess of language, music and all arts who was born on this day. God Brahma created her as his inspiration and source of knowledge. Saraswati plays the veena, the symbol of divine music, holding the Vedas, the book of inner knowledge and the rosary – the mala as the power of mantra.
Author Kavita Kane says of Vasant Panchami, "Love is in the air, it seems, with the first gust of the spring breeze... Vasant Panchami. It is the first of the two spring festivals (the other being Holi at the end of this season) welcoming spring and which, interestingly, is associated with the emotions of love and all emotional anticipation linking it immediately to the young, handsome God of Love Kama and his beautiful wife Rati."
Importance of wearing yellow on Basant Panchami
Basant Panchami is marked at a time when bright yellow flowers dominate rural India. Marigolds or 'genda', 'sheuli' or night jasmine, yellow Hyacinth, yellow lilies and Forsythia shrubs are among the many yellow spring flowers in the country. This is the main reason for yellow being the dominant colour of Basant Panchami and as the name suggests 'Basant' refers to the spring season.
To mark this day, people wear yellow clothes, offer yellow flowers to the Goddess and put a yellow, turmeric tilak on their forehead.
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