Savitri Amavasya in 2024

When is Savitri Amavasya?

Savitri Amavasya is a regional public holiday in the Indian state of Odisha on the last day of the dark fortnight, in the month of  Jyestha. This means it falls in May or June in the western calendar. 

Traditions of Savitri Amavasya

In the early morning, women take purifying baths, wear new clothes and bangles, and apply red vermilion to their foreheads. Nine types of fruits and nine types of flowers are offered to the Goddess Savitri.

The women fast from sunrise to sunset. During the day they pray for their husbands to have a long life, and listen to the tale of Savitri,  who saved her husband Satyavan from being taken by the death god.

Savitri was the beautiful daughter of King Aswapati of Madra Desa. She had chosen Satyaban as her life partner. Satyaban was a prince in exile who was living in the forest with his blind father. Savitri left her palace to live with her husband and his father in the forest. She was a devoted wife and daughter-in-law, going to great lengths to take care of them.

One day while cutting wood in the forest, Satyaban’s suddenly weak, collapsed and died. As Savitri rushed to the dead body of her husband, Yamraj, the death God, appeared to take away his soul. Savitri pleaded to Yamraj not to be separated from her husband. She implored the god that if he takes her husband's soul of her husband, hers should be taken too. Yamraj was so moved by the devotion of Savitri, that he returned the life of her husband.