Chaitanya Mahaprabhu Jayanti 2026 Date
Chaitanya Mahaprabhu Jayanti 2026 is on Tuesday, 3 March 2026, on Pournami tithi.
Dates are for India (IST). Tithi timings for your city are on the Chaitanya Mahaprabhu Jayanti page.
About Chaitanya Mahaprabhu Jayanti
Gaudiya Vaishnavas call this day Gaura Purnima — 'golden full moon' — because Chaitanya was born at moonrise on Phalguna Purnima in 1486, during a lunar eclipse, while the people of Navadvipa stood in the Ganges chanting Hare Krishna to ward off the eclipse. Devotees fast until moonrise, then feast.
The eclipse detail shapes the whole observance. By Vedic custom, an eclipse is inauspicious, and the cure is to stand in a river and chant the holy name. So Bengal was already chanting Hare Krishna when Chaitanya arrived — a sign, his followers say, that he came to spread the Maha Mantra. Devotees mirror this on Gaura Purnima: a full day's fast, kirtan, and the feast offered only after the moon rises. The name 'Gaura' carries a double meaning — his golden complexion and the moonlike cooling rays of his teaching. The day after the Purnima is kept as Jagannatha Misra Festival, named for Chaitanya's father, who distributed gifts and food to mark his son's birth. In Mayapur, Bengal — his birthplace — the festival is preceded by a two-week parikrama (pilgrimage walk) around the nine islands of Navadvipa.
