Radhashtami 2026 Date

About Radhashtami

Falling exactly fifteen days after Krishna Janmashtami, Radhashtami marks Radha's birth at midday — not midnight like Krishna's. The heart of the festival is the Ladli Ji temple in Barsana, the hill village of Radha's birth, where Her image is bathed in a grand noon abhishekam.

The vrat is laid out in the Brihannaradiya Purana: a golden image of Radha is placed on a copper kalasha and worshipped at madhyahna (midday) with the full sixteen-step shodashopachara puja, since Radha is said to have been born at noon. Devotees keep a full fast or, if not, an ekabhukta vrat — a single meal — and feed married women the next day to close the observance. In Gaudiya Vaishnavism, which treats Radha as Krishna's hladini-shakti (His own power of bliss), this is Her Appearance Day. Vrindavan temples like Radha Raman and Radha Vallabh mark it with a rare gesture: the feet of the deity, kept covered all year, are uncovered for darshan on this one day.