One Full Moon, Many Observances

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Namaste, and welcome to the fourth episode. So far in this series we have stayed mostly in Kashi, with its lamps, its month of baths and its story of Shiva and the three cities. In this episode we want to widen the view. Kartik Purnima is kept across India, by many communities, in many forms. Some of these are Hindu observances with their own local stories. Others belong to other faiths entirely, which happen to share this same full moon. Let us travel a little, and listen.

The first thing to notice is how often this full moon brings people to water. Across north India, Kartik Purnima is one of the great bathing days of the year. At Garhmukteshwar, on the Ganga in western Uttar Pradesh, large numbers of people gather for a bath and a fair. At Sonepur in Bihar, where the Gandak river meets the Ganga, at a place called Harihar Kshetra, there is a well known fair, and the bath on the full moon is at its heart. In smaller towns and villages, the local river, tank or pond becomes the centre of the day. The month of early baths that we spoke of in the second episode reaches its fullness here.

Let us go west, to Pushkar in Rajasthan. Pushkar is a small town around a sacred lake, with ghats on its banks, much like a river town. It is closely linked with Brahma, the creator. The Padma Purana connects the place with Brahma, and Pushkar has one of the very few temples in India dedicated to him.

In the days leading up to Kartik Purnima, Pushkar holds a large fair. Many people know it for its camel and livestock trading, with herders and families travelling in from across the region. For pilgrims, though, the heart of it is the bath in the lake on the full moon, and the prayers at the ghats and temples afterwards. In the evening, lamps are floated on the lake and the ghats are lit. If you have seen Dev Deepawali in Kashi, you will recognise the feeling, though the setting and the stories are Pushkar's own.

Now let us go east, to Odisha, where Kartik Purnima has a very different and very beautiful custom called Boita Bandana. A boita is a boat.

Early in the morning, before dawn, families go down to rivers, ponds and the sea shore with small boats that they have made themselves. The boats are made from the bark of the banana stem, from coloured paper, or from light pith. Inside each little boat they place a lamp, and sometimes betel leaves, a few coins or flowers. The lamps are lit, and the boats are set floating on the water in the dark.

This custom remembers Odisha's old seafaring life. Long ago, merchants from this coast, called sadhabas, sailed in large boats across the sea to distant lands, including islands that are now part of Indonesia, such as Bali, Java and Sumatra. The season after the monsoon, when the winds turned, was the season for setting sail. Families at home would see them off, and wait for their return. The little boats of Kartik Purnima keep that memory alive.

In the city of Cuttack, on the banks of the Mahanadi river, there is a great fair called Bali Jatra, the journey to Bali, which begins around this full moon and draws very large crowds. And through the month of Kartik, many women in Odisha, especially in Puri, keep a strict and simple observance of the month called habisha, with a plain diet and daily worship. Odia families will know these customs far better than we do, and we share them with respect.

In the south, in Tamil Nadu, there is a festival of lamps called Karthigai Deepam. It is reckoned by the Tamil calendar, in the month of Karthigai, on the day of the Krittika star. It is its own festival, with its own reckoning, and it sometimes falls close to or on this full moon, and sometimes not. At Tiruvannamalai, a great flame is lit on the top of the sacred hill, and homes across Tamil Nadu are lit with rows of lamps. We mention it so that listeners in the south know we have not forgotten it, and so that nobody confuses the two.

Some Vaishnava traditions also remember, on Kartik Purnima, Vishnu's first avatara, as Matsya, the fish. Again, customs differ from region to region, and families keep what their own tradition teaches.

Now we come to two other faiths, each of which keeps this full moon in its own way.

For the Jain community, the four months of the rainy season are a time called Chaturmas, when monks and nuns stay in one place and do not travel, so as not to harm the many small living beings that appear in the rains. Kartik Purnima marks the end of that period. At Palitana in Gujarat, there is a sacred hill called Shatrunjaya, covered with Jain temples, which is closed to pilgrims during the monsoon months. On Kartik Purnima, it opens again, and a great number of Jain pilgrims climb the hill that day. This is the Jain community's own observance, rooted in its own teachings, and we mention it as such.

And for Sikhs across the world, this full moon is very often the day of Guru Nanak Dev Ji's Prakash Purab, also called Gurpurab. Guru Nanak Dev Ji was the first Guru of the Sikhs. He was born in 1469, at Rai Bhoi di Talwandi, which is now called Nankana Sahib, in present day Pakistan. His birth is celebrated by the Sikh community by its own traditional reckoning, and in most years that falls on this full moon.

Sikhs remember Guru Nanak Dev Ji for his teaching of one Creator, present in all, and for the way of life he taught: to remember the divine name, to earn an honest living by one's own work, and to share what one has with others. His hymns are part of the Guru Granth Sahib, and his long journeys on foot, to many parts of India and beyond, are remembered with great love in Sikh tradition. For the details, and for the meaning of the day, it is best to listen to the Sikh community itself, and to its own teachers.

We want to say this carefully. Guru Nanak Dev Ji's Prakash Purab is the Sikh community's own observance, with its own meaning. It is not part of the Hindu story of Kartik Purnima, and we do not want to fold it into one. We mention it here because many of our listeners will see both on the same day, and it is good to know what each one is.

In the days before the Prakash Purab, gurdwaras hold an Akhand Path, a continuous reading of the Guru Granth Sahib from beginning to end, over about two days. In the early mornings, groups walk through the streets singing hymns, in what are called Prabhat Pheris. There is often a Nagar Kirtan, a procession through the town, led by five Sikhs representing the Panj Pyare, with the Guru Granth Sahib carried with great honour. On the day itself, gurdwaras are lit, kirtan is sung, and langar, the community kitchen, serves food to everyone who comes, whoever they are. In Varanasi too, the city's gurdwaras keep the day, and Sikh families of the city take part in its processions and langar.

If you are not Sikh and would like to visit a gurdwara on that day, you will usually be welcome. Please cover your head, remove your shoes, wash your hands and feet where the facilities are provided, and follow what the sevadars, the volunteers, ask of you. Sit with everyone else for langar, and eat what is served with gratitude. It is a simple way of showing respect.

When we put all of this together, we see one full moon in the sky, and many different lamps beneath it. Kashi lights its ghats for the Diwali of the gods. Pushkar bathes in its lake. Odisha sets little boats on the water in memory of its sailors. Jain pilgrims climb Shatrunjaya. Sikhs light their gurdwaras for the birth of the first Guru. Each keeps its own meaning, and none of them needs to borrow from the others. It is a good reminder of how many ways there are to keep a sacred day in this country.

One thing to take with you. On this full moon, if you meet a neighbour or friend who is keeping a different observance from yours, ask them, gently, what the day means to them. Then listen.

In the next and final episode, we will come back to Kashi, to the ghats on the evening of Dev Deepawali, with a calm and practical guide for anyone who wants to be there.

Keep going

• Listen: One Full Moon, Many Observances
• Previous: Tripuri Purnima: Shiva and the Three Cities
• Next: Being There: Dev Deepawali Evening on the Kashi Ghats
• All episodes of Kartik Purnima and Dev Deepawali in Kashi