Janmashtami - The birthday of lord Shri krishna

Janmashtami is a special and joyous day for all the devotees of lord Krishna. janmashtami is celebrated in all places of India. Janmashtami is called in many names such as ashtamirohini, sri Krishna jayanti etc. Janmashtami is a famous festival in all states of India. Maharashtra is one of the state which celebrates janmashtami in a very auspicious way. The people of Maharashtra have a very attractive game in this day, they place a pot on very top of the street and then some people jointly make a human pyramid and break the hanging pot which is very fun to watch.

Various janmastami celebrations are conducted on all temples of India on this day. Temples will be beautifully decorated with colorful lights. Temples have many special poojas on this auspicious festival day. We can see many beautiful devotional songs of lord Krishna on this day mainly on Krishna temples. Mathura and Vrindhavan are the two place where janmashtami is celebrated for various days and in a very exciting manner. Many people from various places comes to Mathura and Vrindhavan the childhood place of Krishna to celebrate the janmashtami day. Vrindhavan is also the place where Krishna spend his childhood. The people of vrindhavan and Mathura celebrates the janmashtami festival for ten days. Some of the important temples of these two places are Isckon, Shri Krishna balram temple, radharaman temple etc. Sometimes the celebrations may extend for several days. Many people fast on 24 hrs on janmashtami .

Here is a story about this famous festival - There was a king named Kansa who rules the place Mathura. Kansa had a sister named Devaki . Devaki was married to Vasudeva. It was said that the Kansa will be killed by the male son of Devaki and Vasudeva. So the angry Kansa decided to kill all the child of Devaki and Vasudeva. When the eighth child has born, Devaki and Vasudeva decided to exchange the child for a female child from gokul and the Krishna was lived in Gokul for several years and later Krishna killed the king Kansa. Krishna was born in the midnight so the devotees spend the whole days with bhajan and reading devotional books till the midnight.

Krishna's favorite food was butter and in many houses butter are made for its remembrance on this day . Krishna's main fun was stealing butter from the hanged pots and playing flute. Many fun programmes and games will be arranged in the janmashtami day. In some places like Kerala in the Sreekrishna jayanthi day many children may appear in the attire of Krishna. Various dramas are played on the janmashtami day by the children. People sing devotional songs and dance to make the birthday of Lord Sri Krishna auspicious