Basant Panchami 2027 वसंत पंचमी

Why Basant Panchami is celebrated

Vasant Panchami tells people that the cold of winter is giving way to spring. Across the plains of North India the mustard fields are in full yellow bloom at this time, and yellow becomes the colour of the day. People wear yellow, offer yellow flowers and cook yellow sweets and rice.

The festival is above all a day for Goddess Saraswati, who stands for knowledge, speech, music and the arts. Students, teachers, writers and musicians seek her blessing. Many families choose this day for a child's first lesson in writing, a ritual called Vidyarambh or Akshar Abhyas. The day is also treated as naturally auspicious, so weddings, house entries and new ventures are often fixed on it without a separate muhurat.

History and story of Basant Panchami

Saraswati appears in the Rigveda first as a great river and later as a goddess of speech and wisdom. Over time she came to be shown seated on a white lotus or a swan, holding a veena, a book and a rosary. According to Puranic tradition she was born from Brahma to give order and sound to his creation.

Spring also links the day with Kamadeva, the god of love, whose friend Vasant is the spirit of the season. In Braj, the region around Mathura and Vrindavan, Vasant Panchami marks the start of the long Holi season, which runs for about forty days.

The festival has a Sufi side too. According to a story told at the Nizamuddin dargah in Delhi, the poet Amir Khusrau once saw women in yellow carrying mustard flowers and copied them to cheer his grieving teacher, Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya. The dargah still holds a Basant celebration every year.

How Basant Panchami is celebrated

The day begins with a bath and fresh yellow or white clothes. An idol or picture of Saraswati is placed on a clean cloth and worshipped with yellow flowers, sandal paste, akshat, incense and a lamp. Books, pens, notebooks and musical instruments are kept near the goddess for blessing, and in many homes students do not study that day. Offerings include kesariya rice, boondi, besan laddoo, fruit and the season's ber.

Schools and colleges hold Saraswati Vandana. Children are introduced to letters by writing their first word on a slate or in rice. Kite flying is common in Punjab, Haryana and parts of Uttar Pradesh.

Basant Panchami across India

In West Bengal, Assam, Odisha, Tripura and Bihar the day is Saraswati Puja, with community pandals, morning anjali and khichuri bhog. Many Bengali students avoid eating ber until it has been offered to the goddess. Punjab remembers grand Basant fairs held in the time of Maharaja Ranjit Singh.

In Uttarakhand the day is often called Shri Panchami. In many Kumaon and Garhwal homes, fresh green shoots of barley are placed at the door and on the heads of family members as a sign of a good harvest. On this day the royal family's priests at the Narendra Nagar palace in Tehri announce the date on which the doors of Badrinath temple will open for the year.