Festival
commemorating the birth of Lord Krishna on the eighth day (ashtami) of the dark
(waning) half of the lunar month Bhadrapada (August–September).
This festival, like other Krishna-related festivals, is celebrated
mostly in the Braj area, where Krishna is said to have resided, but it is also
commemorated throughout the nation.
Since Krishna is claimed to have been born at midnight,
devotees (bhakta) typically remain up late into the night, and the celebrations
are sometimes punctuated by singing, chanting, parades, and plays portraying
episodes in Krishna's life.
The Krishna lilas are performed at the town of Brindavan,
which is historically thought to have been Krishna's boyhood home, during the
month of Janmashtami.
Krishna is the ninth son of Devaki and Vasudeva, according
to legend.
He is born in a jail in the city of Mathura, where Devaki's
brother, the cruel king Kamsa, is holding his parents.
Kamsa has imprisoned the two in order to avoid being slain
by his sister Devaki's eighth son, according to a prophesy.
When Krishna is born, wonderful things happen: the jailers
go into a deep slumber, the closed prison doors suddenly open, and Vasudeva is
able to take the newborn out of the prison to the house of the couple who would
become his foster parents, Nanda and Yashoda.
That night, Vasudeva arrives with Yashoda's new-born baby
daughter, who is really the goddess Bhadrakali in disguise.
The following morning, Kamsa murders the kid by slamming her
on a stone, but a terrifying form of the Goddess emerges from the corpse,
taunting Kamsa by informing him that the person who would kill him has already
fled.
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