Kṛṣṇa Janmāṣṭamī — Kṛṣṇa's midnight birth
Bhādrapada Kṛṣṇa Aṣṭamī (Śrāvaṇa in amānta) · August–September
Janmāṣṭamī celebrates the birth of Kṛṣṇa at midnight on the eighth day of the dark fortnight, under the star Rohiṇī. Few festivals mix devotion and play so well: fasting and night-long singing alongside butter, cradles, and children dressed as little Kṛṣṇas. Smārta and Vaiṣṇava calendars sometimes keep it on consecutive days, so check the panchang for your tradition.
At home, decorate the shrine with flowers and a small cradle (pālanā). Many keep a fast through the day — fruit, milk and water, or nirjala for those who are able — and break it after the midnight pūjā. At midnight, bathe the bāla-Kṛṣṇa idol with milk, curd, ghee, honey and sugar (pañcāmṛta) and then water, dress him in new clothes, place him in the cradle, rock it gently and sing. Offer butter, curd, pañjīrī, makhana kheer and tulasī leaves. Reading the birth story from the Bhāgavata or chanting “Hare Kṛṣṇa” or “Om Namo Bhagavate Vāsudevāya” fills the waiting hours.
Mathurā and Vṛndāvan celebrate for days with rāslīlā and jhāṅkīs. In Maharashtra, the next day is Dahī Handī, when human pyramids climb to break a pot of curd hung high — helmets and safety nets are wisely used now. In Tamil Nadu and Kerala it is Gokulāṣṭamī or Śrī Jayantī, with tiny rice-flour footprints drawn from the door to the shrine as if the child Kṛṣṇa has walked in; Udupi and Guruvāyūr hold grand festivals. ISKCON temples worldwide make it one of the year's biggest nights.
Tradition says that King Kaṃsa of Mathurā heard a voice from the sky foretelling that the eighth child of his sister Devakī would kill him. He imprisoned Devakī and her husband Vasudeva and killed six of their children. Kṛṣṇa was born at midnight as their eighth child; the guards fell asleep, the chains and doors opened, and Vasudeva carried the baby in a basket across the flooding Yamunā — the serpent Śeṣa sheltering him from the rain — to Gokul. There he exchanged him for the newborn daughter of Nanda and Yaśodā, and Kṛṣṇa grew up among the cowherds.
Śrī Kṛṣṇa (bāla-Gopāla) · Fast till midnight; cradle pūjā · Mathurā-Vṛndāvan, Dahī Handī, Guruvāyūr · Bhāgavata Purāṇa 10