Pradosha Kala
Roughly 90 minutes around sunset.
The period beginning shortly before sunset and running about three ghatis after. It governs the Pradosh vrat, the Diwali Lakshmi Puja, and Holika Dahan.
What Pradosha Kala governs
These are decided around sunset, during pradosha kala.
Recurring vrats
- Ahoi Ashtami A mothers' vrat, kept for the wellbeing and long life of one's children. The fast runs through the day and is broken in the evening, in many families only after the stars are seen — and in some, after moonrise.
- Pradosh Vrat twice each lunar month
Annual festivals
- Dattatreya Jayanti The appearance day of Dattatreya, the three-headed form combining Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. Kept at Gangapur, Ganagapur and the Datta sampradaya centres, with the Guru Charitra recited through the preceding week.
- Deepavali The festival of lamps, spread over up to five days: Dhanteras, Naraka Chaturdashi, the Lakshmi Puja on Amavasya, Govardhan Puja or Bali Pratipada, and Bhai Dooj.
- Holi Two linked observances. On the first evening a bonfire (Holika Dahan) is lit and circumambulated. The next morning is the play with dry and wet colour that the festival is known for outside India.
- Holika Dahan The bonfire on the night before Holi. A pyre is built through the preceding weeks, and lit after dark; grain from the new harvest is roasted in it.
- Kartik Purnima The full moon of Kartika: river bathing at dawn, lamps at dusk, and — on the same date — Guru Nanak's birth anniversary for Sikhs and the Karthigai Deepam lamp festival in Tamil Nadu.
- Parashurama Jayanti The appearance day of Parashurama, the sixth avatara — the Brahmin who took up the axe. Kept in the Konkan and by Chitpavan and Bhargava communities, and at the Parashurama temples of the west coast.