Maha Shivaratri 2026 — Sunday 15 February
మహా శివరాత్రి 2026
Phalguna Bahula Chaturdashi · Shivaratri / Mahashivratri · Four prahar pujas: 18:30-21:30 / 21:30-00:30 / 00:30-03:30 / 03:30-06:30 IST (15-16 Feb, Hyderabad)
Maha Shivaratri 2026 (also called Shivaratri / Mahashivratri) falls on Sunday, 15 February 2026. The night of Lord Shiva — celebrates Shiva's Tandava dance and his marriage to Parvati. The only festival observed at night. Considered the most powerful night for Shiva sadhana and Linga abhishekam. Primary observance: All-night vigil (Jagaran), Linga Abhishekam (with milk, curd, ghee, honey, sugar — Panchamrita), bilva leaf offering, Maha Mrityunjaya Mantra recitation, Shiva Tandava Stotram, Rudram chanting, full-day fast (Nirjala for advanced practitioners). Recommended muhurat: Four prahar pujas: 18:30-21:30 / 21:30-00:30 / 00:30-03:30 / 03:30-06:30 IST (15-16 Feb, Hyderabad).
Maha Shivaratri 2026 — Date & Muhurat
| Festival Date | Sunday, 15 February 2026 |
| Telugu Masa & Tithi | Phalguna Bahula Chaturdashi |
| Primary Muhurat | Four prahar pujas: 18:30-21:30 / 21:30-00:30 / 00:30-03:30 / 03:30-06:30 IST (15-16 Feb, Hyderabad) |
| Alternative Names | Shivaratri / Mahashivratri |
All timings computed using Lahiri Ayanamsa Swiss Ephemeris for Hyderabad (17.385°N, 78.486°E). For exact local timings in other cities use our Today's Panchangam tool.
Significance of Maha Shivaratri 2026
The night of Lord Shiva — celebrates Shiva's Tandava dance and his marriage to Parvati. The only festival observed at night. Considered the most powerful night for Shiva sadhana and Linga abhishekam.
Key Rituals on Maha Shivaratri 2026
All-night vigil (Jagaran), Linga Abhishekam (with milk, curd, ghee, honey, sugar — Panchamrita), bilva leaf offering, Maha Mrityunjaya Mantra recitation, Shiva Tandava Stotram, Rudram chanting, full-day fast (Nirjala for advanced practitioners).
Maha Shivaratri 2026 Puja Samagri Checklist (Shopping List)
Items to procure 1-2 days before Maha Shivaratri 2026:
| # | Item |
|---|---|
| 1 | Bilva (Maredu) leaves (3-leaf clusters) |
| 2 | Milk + curd + ghee + honey + sugar (panchamrita) |
| 3 | Gangajal |
| 4 | White flowers + datura flowers |
| 5 | Bhasma (sacred ash) |
| 6 | Rudraksha mala |
| 7 | Camphor + ghee lamp |
| 8 | Coconut + bananas |
| 9 | Shivalinga (clay/metal/stone) |
| 10 | Bel patra book or Rudram |
Regional Variations of Maha Shivaratri 2026
Andhra: Srisailam Mallikarjuna Shivaratri Brahmotsavam — one of India's most attended Shivaratri pilgrimages. Karnataka: Gokarna Mahabaleshwar all-night puja. North India: Varanasi Kashi Vishwanath. Tamil Nadu: Chidambaram Nataraja darshan. All-India: 4-prahar puja with rotating mantra recitation.
The Stories Behind Maha Shivaratri
A Shivaratri falls in every lunar month, on the Chaturdashi of the waning fortnight. One of them is called the great one, and three separate accounts explain why.
The first is the Lingodbhava. Brahma and Vishnu fell into a dispute over which of them was greater, and while it went on a pillar of light appeared between them with no top and no bottom. Both set out to find its end, Brahma upward and Vishnu downward. Vishnu returned and admitted he had found none; Brahma returned claiming he had reached the top and produced a ketaki flower as his witness. The pillar then revealed itself as Shiva, the flower was cursed for bearing false witness, and Brahma lost his claim to worship. The night on which the lingam appeared as that column of light is this night, which is why the lingam and not an image is what is worshipped.
The second is from the churning of the ocean. When the halahala rose from the sea and threatened to end everything, Shiva drank it and held it in his throat, and it stained him blue — Neelakantha. The devas stayed awake through the night with him, singing and dancing, so that the poison would not take hold. The vigil kept on Shivaratri is that night repeated, which is why staying awake is the observance rather than merely a custom attached to it.
The third is the smallest and the one most often told to explain why anyone at all may keep the day. A hunter, caught in a forest after dark, climbed a bilva tree to escape the animals below and stayed awake all night. To keep himself alert he plucked and dropped leaves, which fell on a lingam at the foot of the tree he did not know was there, and the water he spilled from his pot fell on it too. He had fasted all day without meaning to, kept vigil all night without meaning to, and offered bilva and abhishekam without meaning to. The tradition says the full merit of the vrat came to him anyway.
Several traditions also keep this as the night of Shiva's marriage to Parvati, and the Kalyanam is performed in temples that follow it. The four accounts are not rivals — they are four reasons the same night is kept awake.
Maha Shivaratri Puja Vidhi — Step by Step
Maha Shivaratri is worshipped in four sittings across the night, one in each prahara, and the abhishekam substance changes with each. The Nishita Kaal — the midnight window in which the Lingodbhava is placed — and the four prahara windows are in the muhurat panel above, computed for your city.
| Step | What is done |
|---|---|
| 1 | Sankalpa at dawn — Bathe, wear clean clothes and state the intention for the fast and the night vigil. The vrat begins here, not in the evening. |
| 2 | Prepare the offerings — Bilva leaves in threes with the stalk intact, white flowers, dhatura, vibhuti, rudraksha, a bel fruit, and the panchamrita — milk, curd, ghee, honey and sugar. Bilva is customarily plucked the previous day. |
| 3 | First prahara — milk — Bathe the lingam in water and then in milk, offer bilva and white flowers, and chant the panchakshari. Milk is offered for purity. |
| 4 | Second prahara — curd — Abhishekam with curd, offering the Mahamrityunjaya. This sitting is kept for health and for the removal of fear. |
| 5 | Third prahara — ghee — Abhishekam with ghee, with the Sri Rudram where the household can chant it. The Nishita Kaal usually falls in or near this sitting and is the night's centre. |
| 6 | Fourth prahara — honey — Abhishekam with honey in the last watch, closing with the bel fruit offered whole and the aarti before dawn. |
| 7 | Bilva archana — Through every sitting, offer bilva leaves one at a time with each name while chanting the ashtottara or the Shiva sahasranama. Bilva is the offering Shiva is said to accept above all others. |
| 8 | Jagarana — Stay awake between the sittings with Shiva bhajans, the Rudram, the Shiva Purana or Shiva Tandava Stotram. The vigil is the vrat; the four pujas punctuate it. |
| 9 | Vibhuti and rudraksha — Apply vibhuti in three lines across the forehead and wear rudraksha for the night. |
| 10 | Parana — Break the fast the next morning after the final aarti, within the window shown in the muhurat panel, beginning with the prasada and the abhishekam water. |
A household that cannot keep all four sittings keeps one — customarily the one nearest the Nishita Kaal — with the full abhishekam and bilva archana, and stays awake as long as it can. The observance is not scored on completeness.
The Shivaratri Fast
The fast runs from sunrise through the night and is released the next morning, which makes it longer than most single-day vrats.
| Grade | What it involves |
|---|---|
| Nirjala | Neither food nor water from sunrise until the Parana the next morning. Kept by the practised, and not advisable with any medical condition. |
| Phalahara | Fruit, milk and water through the day, nothing after the evening puja. The grade most households keep. |
| Ekabhukta | One sattvic meal without grain, salt or onion, taken before the evening, then only water through the night. |
| Substituted observance | The elderly, the unwell, children, pregnant and nursing women take fruit and milk freely and keep the night with japa instead of vigil. Prescribed medicine is taken with food as required. |
The vigil matters more than the severity of the fast in this particular vrat, because the night itself is what is being kept. A lighter fast held with a full night of japa is the better observance, not the lesser one.
Mantras Chanted on Maha Shivaratri
These three carry the night. The first is chanted continuously, the second at the second prahara and through the vigil, the third where the household can hold it.
| Mantra | What it means |
|---|---|
| ఓం నమః శివాయ Om Namah Shivaya | The panchakshari, the five-syllable mantra. Chanted with each bilva leaf offered, and kept running under the whole night. No initiation is required for it. |
| ఓం త్ర్యంబకం యజామహే సుగంధిం పుష్టివర్ధనమ్ | ఉర్వారుకమివ బంధనాన్ మృత్యోర్ముక్షీయ మామృతాత్ || Om tryambakam yajamahe sugandhim pushti-vardhanam, urvarukam iva bandhanan mrityor mukshiya mamritat | The Mahamrityunjaya mantra, addressed to the three-eyed one. It asks to be released from the bonds of death as a ripe cucumber falls from its stem. Chanted in count through the vigil. |
| ఓం నమో భగవతే రుద్రాయ Om Namo Bhagavate Rudraya | The opening salutation of the Sri Rudram, the Rudra hymn recited during the abhishekam in temples. Where the full Namakam and Chamakam cannot be chanted, this line is used in its place. |
Chant at whatever pace lets the words stay clear. Tradition counts attention, not speed, and a short count said with care is held better than a long one rushed. If a syllable is uncertain, follow your family priest or your temple's recitation rather than a transliteration.
How Maha Shivaratri Is Kept Region by Region
Shivaratri is kept in every Shiva temple in the subcontinent, and a few of them keep it at a scale the day is known for.
| Region | How the day is kept |
|---|---|
| Andhra Pradesh and Telangana | Srisailam and Srikalahasti hold the largest observances, both jyotirlinga-class kshetras, with Kalyanam performed and lakhs of pilgrims for the night. Households keep the jagarana at home with bilva archana and Rudrabhishekam done by a priest. |
| Tamil Nadu | Thiruvannamalai keeps the night with the hill circumambulated through it, and Chidambaram, Thiruvanaikaval and Rameswaram hold night-long abhishekams. Households read the Thevaram and keep the vigil. |
| Karnataka | Gokarna, Murudeshwara and Dharmasthala hold the main observances; in North Karnataka the Lingayat tradition keeps the night with vachana singing rather than temple ritual alone. |
| Madhya Pradesh and Ujjain | Mahakaleshwar keeps the bhasma aarti through the night, the one place where the abhishekam is offered with ash, and the nine-day Shivnavaratri leads up to it. |
| Varanasi | Kashi Vishwanath is kept open through the night, and the day is also observed as the marriage of Shiva and Parvati, with a procession taken out from the Tilbhandeshwar temple. |
| Odisha | Called Jagara. The Lingaraj temple at Bhubaneswar and Dhabaleswar keep the night, and the Mahadipa — a great lamp — is hoisted to the temple summit at midnight; the fast is broken only after it is raised. |
| Himachal Pradesh | The Mandi Shivratri fair runs for a week, with the deities of the surrounding valleys carried in procession to Mandi. |
| Kashmir | Kashmiri Pandits keep it as Herath, on the Trayodashi rather than the Chaturdashi, centred on the Vatuk Puja — a pot of walnuts soaked and worshipped overnight, then distributed as prasada. |
| Gujarat | The Bhavnath Mahadev fair at the foot of Girnar runs for five days, and the Naga sadhus' procession at midnight is its centre. |
| Nepal | Pashupatinath holds the largest single gathering of the day anywhere, with sadhus arriving from across the subcontinent for the night. |
Why the same night is called Phalguna in one calendar and Magha in another
You will see Maha Shivaratri placed in Phalguna in some almanacs and in Magha in others, and both are correct. The difference is not about the night but about where the month is taken to begin.
In the Amanta reckoning, used across the South and the West, a lunar month ends at the new moon. In the Purnimanta reckoning, used across much of the North, it ends at the full moon. A waning-fortnight date therefore carries a different month name in the two systems while pointing at exactly the same night — the Chaturdashi of the dark fortnight before the new moon that precedes the spring full moon.
This page gives the month as our panchangam reckons it. If your family almanac names the other month, it is the same night, not a different one.
What is not offered to Shiva
Shiva puja has a short list of things kept away from it, and it differs from the offerings made to other deities, which is where most households go wrong.
Turmeric is not offered, nor is kumkuma made from it, because turmeric belongs to the auspicious married-woman offerings and the lingam is worshipped in the ascetic form. Tulasi, which is central to Vishnu worship, is not offered to Shiva. The ketaki flower is excluded by the Lingodbhava story itself, for bearing false witness. Champa is avoided by the same kind of account. Vermilion in the sindoor form is not applied; vibhuti is.
What is offered instead is bilva above everything, then water, milk, panchamrita, white flowers such as jasmine and datura blossom, dhatura fruit, bhang leaf where the tradition keeps it, vibhuti and rudraksha. Bilva leaves should be offered in threes with the stalk kept on and the smooth side down.
More Questions About Maha Shivaratri
What makes this Shivaratri the great one when there is one every month?
Is the night vigil compulsory?
Which abhishekam is offered in which watch?
Can Shivaratri be observed at home without a lingam?
When is the fast broken?
Why is bilva the main offering?
Points Households Most Often Get Wrong
| # | Point |
|---|---|
| 1 | Sleeping through the night and keeping only the fast — The vigil is the vrat. If a choice has to be made, keep a lighter fast and stay awake rather than the reverse. |
| 2 | Offering turmeric, tulasi or ketaki — All three are kept out of Shiva puja. Bilva, white flowers and vibhuti take their place. |
| 3 | Treating any Shivaratri clock time as fixed — The four prahara windows and the Nishita Kaal move with your city. Take them from the muhurat panel on this page. |
| 4 | Breaking the fast at midnight — Unlike Janmashtami, the Shivaratri fast is released the next morning at Parana, after the last aarti, not at the midnight puja. |
| 5 | Assuming the Phalguna and Magha almanacs disagree — They are two month-naming conventions pointing at the same night. |