Vasant Panchami 2026 Date

About Vasant Panchami

Magha Shukla Panchami marks Saraswati's appearance day — and the first day of Holi season in Brij, where priests at Vrindavan's Banke Bihari temple toss the year's first gulal. Across India, devotees wear yellow to echo the blooming mustard fields, and children are guided to write their first letters before her idol.

Two threads run through this day, far apart in mood. In Bengal it is Saraswati Puja: clay idols in yellow saris are installed at home and in schools, and toddlers perform Hate Khori — the chalk-in-hand ceremony — tracing their first Bengali letters on a slate held by an elder. The idols are then carried in procession and immersed, often the same evening. In Mathura and Vrindavan, the same tithi opens the 40-day countdown to Holi: a Holi Danda (wooden post) is planted to be burnt at Holika Dahan, and priests fling abeer and gulal on devotees for the first time. Punjab adds a third register — Basant here is secular, a kite-flying festival famously patronised by Ranjit Singh, who held court in yellow. The recitation common to all three is the Saraswati Stotram verse 'Ya Kundendu Tushara Hara Dhavala'.