Shri Krishna Janmashtami Images Free Download 2021

Krishna Janmasthami means Birthday of Lord Krishna. Its celebrated on the eighth day (Ashtami) of the Krishna Paksha (dark fortnight) in the month of Shrawan of the lunar Hindu Calendar and Krishna Paksha (dark fortnight) in the month of Bhadrapad of the lunisolar Hindu Calendar, which overlaps with August and September.

In Kerala, we celebrate the festival Ashtami Rohini. Why its called so? Because the focus is more on Rohini star (birth star of the lord )which should its present in midnight hours (as the lord was born at midnight). In Malayalee traditions, the Birth star precedes every other factor in the determination of an auspicious occasion associated with the birthday. So accordingly we look for Rohini Star in the Malayalam month of Chingam ( as in the Solar calendar). So many times, we do celebrate Ashtami Rohini on a different day as often Rohini star may not fall on Ashtami day while rest of India mostly focus on the Ashtami factor with less importance to Rohini factor.

The Golden idol of Baby Krishna brought out to the temple forecourt of Ambalapuzha as part of Ashtami Rohini celebrations.

Traditionally this is a pure temple-centric festival, ie limited only inside temples of Lord Krishna. There are no major celebrations or rituals to be done at home.

Shri Krishna Janmashtami Date and Time 2021

According to the Gregorian calendar, Krishna Janmashtami is celebrated in the month of August or September. Shri Krishna Janmashtami's date varies every year.

Most of the time, Krishna Janmashtami is listed on two consecutive days. The first one is for Smarta Sampradaya and the other one is for Vaishnava Sampradaya. This year, it will be celebrated on August 30 and 31.

Krishna Janmashtami wishes 2021

Let your life be filled with love and laughter with Lord Krishna's blessings. Happy Janmashtami!
May Lord Krishna always be with you and protect you and your loved ones.” Happy Krishna Janmashtami!
May lord Krishna bless you with values and show you the right path on this auspicious occasion of Janmashtami!
Lord Krishna will give you the courage to fight with hardships in life. Happy Janmashtami!
May Lord Krishna give you lots of happiness on the holy occasion of Krishna Janmashtami!

Krishna Janmashtami Puja and Vrat Vidhi

According to Hindu culture; it is highly endorsed that; every person should observe fast on this fortunate occasion of Krishna Janmashtami. It’s time to comprehend the Puja and Vrat Vidhi which comprise of no hard and fast rules.
On this day, taking a holy bath and observing fast is like mandatory rituals. Wake up a little early during the morning time. Then decorate a small house of baby Krishna for displaying jhakkis and spangles in/near the temple area. Krishna's small Puja room should embellish with Padmaragamani; and flower-garlands along with khadag, krishna chaagh, mushal and many more.
The walls of the miniature house should have Swastik, Shubh-Laabh and Ohm etc for the positivity during the Krishna Janmashtami celebration.
The idol of Mother Goddess Devki should position along with Shri Krishna portrait in the zodiacal Krishna house. Install a tiny statue of baby Lord Krishna’s on a cradle or swing inside that house. That beautiful Putty house should be decorated and adorned with different materials and ornaments as much as possible.
With complete devotion and a pack of ornaments including flowers, sunshine, coconut, betel, cucumber, orange, other various types of fruits, baby Lord Krishna should be worshiped in the main sanctum of the house.
During Midnight, Aarti should be performed while playing conch on the birth of Lord Krishna in, followed by distributing Bhog (Prasad).
Vratis the devotees who are all are observing fasts should feed the Brahmin (pundits) on the day of Navami to get their utter blessings.

As its the birthday of Lord Krishna, in morning hours, the idol will be designed and ornamented as Lord Vishnu (with 4 hands, etc) as it believed Lord Vishnu appeared before Devaki and Vasudeva (parents of Krishna) in morning hours to bless them before merging his divinity into Devaki’s womb. By night, the idol will be redesigned as baby Krishna with the deity in a small loincloth (Konakkam) with heaps of butter on his side. Only on the Ashtami Rohini festival, these temples open at midnight for the special midnight poojas. After these poojas, the priest will take Ultsava Moorthy (the second brass idol solely meant for procession) in a small basket and walk around the temple as a procession, placing it on his head, just like how Vasudeva carried baby Krishna on his head to Brindavan. The most celebrated offering is butter in any Krishna temple. On this day, one will not get any butter back as Prasadam (prasad) which one offers as it believed that baby Krishna will consume every single butter served to him. Heaps of butter will be placed around the idol as the birthday special food to the baby. The standard prasadam on this day will be Unniappam as a token of celebrating the day with sweets to devotees.

The special procession of Lord Guruvayurappan (Krishna) on the Ashtami Rohini eve

Uruadi celebrations with kids dressed as Krishna, Sudama (Kuchela, Krishna’s close friend), and other friends playing in the temple forecourt

Big temples like Guruvayur etc will have a special birthday feast for all devotees on the next day after the night of Rohini (the time when Krishna was born). In addition, small kids dress up as Krishna, Balarama, Radha, Gopis etc are allowed to play inside the temple forecourt to recreate the Brindavan days. And a special Seeveli (procession) with 5 elephants will be undertaken with an hour-long traditional musical ensemble- Panchavadyam. And dance programs, as well as musical concerts, are normally held.

Dance celebrations at Guruvayur temple for Ashtami Rohini

Some temple does have small past-time celebrations like Uruadi (breaking a pot of butter/buttermilk or water), Rasaleelas with kids dressed as Krishna and Gopis dancing etc.

The grand feast of Aranmula Vallasadya to celebrate Ashtami Rohini

The celebrated Aranmula Vallasadya in Arnamula temple starts from Ashtami Rohini day. Its the world’s largest vegetarian feast with more than 68 items on the menu served to the lord and people. 51 feudal lords and their retinue around the temple, comes in their snake-boats singing Krishnagadha (the stories of lord) and they partake the mega feast along with 10,000+ devotees.

There will be special poojas in all Krishna temples.

Kerala Devaswom and Tourism affairs minister Kadakampally Surendran taking part in last year’s Ashtami Rohini Celebrations at Guruvayur

Sobhayatras

Sobhayatra across Kerala with kids dressed as Krishna and walking around the city

Since the 1970s, Balagokulam (a children’s wing of Sangh Parivar) started celebrated a public procession called Shobha Yatra where kids dress up as Lord Krishna, Gopis, Radha, and others Puranic characters walk around the city, celebrating the birth of Krishna. It was extremely cute to see 1000s of small kids walking around as Krishna and Radha. Initially, it was celebrated solely with the intention to popularize the festival. People who weren’t associated with Balagokulam also used to participate as it was cuteness overloaded to see their babies and children in Krishna dress.

Off recently politicalization of Sobhayatra became common with highlighting of Saffron flags and themes like Mother India etc unrelated to the festival

Left version of Shobhayatra highlighting as a cultural procession with communist/left icons featured.

Kerala Speaker P Sreeramakrishnan inaugurating a CPM sponsored Krishnajayanthi meet which was indeed curious

However, off recently, a lot of political signs started creeping in, as part of RSS’s political posturing. Saffron flags, their concept of Mother India, etc all got featured in the procession which wasn’t common in past. This has sparked off a political debate as many communists are in the opinion that RSS is using the banner of Sobhayatra to attract kids and small children as well as their parents who have neutral/independent ideologies to Sakas/Balagokulam camps which fine-tunes them into RSS ideology. To counter that, in the last few years, Left groups also started their version of Sobhayatras which is more of a cultural procession featuring many social themes and characters outside Puranas. Often it became amusing to see Left groups placing banners/flexes that shows Krishna as Comrade highlighting his teachings equal to many concepts of communism etc. For the last 3 to 4 years, we are seeing two versions of Krishnashtami celebrations, one by Sangh Parivar and the other by Left groups.

However, this year (2018), all celebrations have been canceled in wake of the Kerala floods 2018. Both Sangh Parivar and Left groups announced there won’t any Sobhayatras, rather only prayer meetings to pray for those who lost their lives and properties.

All temples across Kerala scaled-down the celebrations due to the floods. The money earmarked for floods was given to the CM Relief fund. However, rituals associated with the day will be observed and a small feast has been arranged in many temples. The famous Ambalapuzha Krishna temple whose Ashtami Rohini feast was iconic decided to hold it by inviting victims of flood-affected areas and people living in relief camps.

As we are not celebrating any festivals this year due to the tragedy we faced, we are not wishing any happy moments, rather wishing only BLESSED KRISHNASHTAMI to all…

Here is how to celebrate Janmashtami:

People keep fasts for the whole day on Janmashtami.
All famous Krishna temples organize the recitation of Bhagavata Purana and Bhagavad Gita.
People also decorate their homes with toys and playful items for Lord Krishna to play after birth.
Women also draw tiny footprints outside their house doors, which represents Krishna’s steps coming into their homes.
In the evening, people also visit various Krishna and Vishnu temples.
Dance-drama enactments of the life of Krishna in the form of Rasa Lila and Krishna Lila are performed.
People sing devotional songs showing love for Krishna through the midnight by keeping a night vigil (Ratri Jagaran).
At exactly 12 AM in the night, Krishna is believed to have taken birth.
After Krishna’s midnight hour birth, the idol of baby Krishna is washed and properly clothed.
This idol is then worshipped after placing it in a cradle or small swing.
Devotees then break their fast, by sharing food and sweets with each other.

If you find my answer useful, please upvote and follow me on Quora. It will help me bring such useful information to more people.

Shri Krishna Janmashtami decoration ideas 2021

On the day of Janmashtami, the baby form of Krishna is worshipped. Therefore, one would need an idol of baby Krishna. Usually, the one wherein Lord Krishna is seen crawling is used for the puja. His idol is placed on a palna (cradle) or jhoola which is rocked during the time of the puja to recreate the joyous occasion of a baby's birth.

You can use fresh flowers to decorate the palna/jhoola. However, if you do not have fresh flowers, you can use artificial flowers for decoration purposes. After adding flowers, place a tiny bed with two cylindrical pillows on the other side. You may also use LED decorative lights or rice lights for decorating the palna. However, you must ensure that there's no moisture or dampness while using electrical devices. If you do not have LED lights or rice lights, you can keep oil lamps around the palna. Do attach a chain to the palna so that you can gently rock the cradle during the puja to pamper baby Krishna.

You may also do rangoli with color powder or flowers in front of the palna.

After decorating the cradle, make baby Krishna wear new clothes and jewelry. If you have a mor mukut ( a crown with a peacock leaf) then place it on baby Krishna's head. Apply Chandan and put a small garland made of fresh flowers around Krishna's neck. And then gently place him on the palna.

During the puja, Tulsi leaves, and white unsalted butter must be offered to Shri Krishna. Therefore, you may use a small matki (earthen pot) and decorate it with glitters and stones or zari laces and put the white butter into it. Once all the arrangements are made, you may perform the puja.