MAHASHIVRATRI is the auspicious day of the marriage of Lord Shiva with Goddess
Parvati. We know that, of the Trinity, Lord Brahma is in charge of creation,
Lord Vishnu takes care of this creation and Lord Shiva is the Destroyer. Human nature,
being what it is, is always afraid of destruction, and as such Maha-Shivratri
is celebrated with full grandeur giving respect to the growth oriented action (marriage)
of Lord Shiva with Goddess Parvati.

If one collects statistic of
number of temples of various deities in India, one will find that the maximum
percentage of temples are those of Shiva (Destroyer) followed by Vishnu
(PALLAN-KARTA or caretaker of creation), with Brahma (Creator) falling way
behind with, perhaps, one designated temple at Pushkar. Conclusions, as to why
we worship God (because we are afraid, or for personal gains, or because we
love HIS creation), is personal choice of readers.

Worship performed during
this festival is considered highly auspicious, and rewarding. Unmarried girls
do this for decent marriage, married couples with compatibility problems, feel
this improves their married lives; others worship for divine grace.

Now the
big question—when is Shivratri or Mahashivratri celebrated? What are the astronomical
considerations for this festival?

Since 80% of the Indian
population consists of Hindus, it is important that people must know what are
the astronomical considerations, and any other physical consideration for
celebrating a festival on a specific date. After all, Hindus, have absolute
faith in their Dharm (religion), and this faith should not be taken for granted. I, personally, will certainly feel cheated, if I was told
that a particular festival is being wrongly celebrated on a different date. In
this information age, the information provided by authorities, can easily be
verified by the general public. All the other religious bodies are doing this,
except, of course, Hindu religious bodies.

I tried to ascertain from
various sources, what exactly are the astronomical and physical considerations
for celebrating this festival, but I could not get any satisfactory information,
except that Mahashivratri is celebrated on thirteenth dark fortnight (Krishna
Paksha) tithi of Phagun month. THEN WHY WAS IT
CELEBRATED ON FOURTEENTH TITHI THIS YEAR ON 12^TH FEB?

First let us get on with
what is the difference between Shivratri and Mahashivratri. Shivratri is celebrated
(only for the purpose of worshipping) on every thirteenth dark fortnight of
lunar month, with Mahashivratri being celebrated in the month of Phagun. During
the 13^th tithi of Phagun, normally, the sun will be in Aquarius
(Kumbha in Sanskrit) and moon in Capricorn (Makara). Mahashivratri is
considered to be the marriage day of Shiva and Goddess Parvati.

Here Kumbha represents Shiva
and Makara represents Mata Parvati. And there is a reason for this. As per
Vedanta Jyotish (remember VJ has an important role in selection of dates for
all Hindu festivals), Kumbha is a Rashi farthest away from the Rashi of Sun
i.e. Leo (Singh in Sanskrit). Kumbha is represented by an EMPTY earthen pot.
The immediate idea that we get is of abject poverty, and since Saturn owns this
Rashi, you can add Karma with detachment. The other rashi, Capricorn, where
moon is, is also owned by Saturn. Mars gets exalted status over here, and Mars,
we all know gives exaltation results only through renouncement. Mata Parvati, a
princess, belonging to a very rich royal family, renounced everything to marry
Lord Shiva. She gets represented during Mahashivratri by Capricorn. She knew
she was marrying Lord Shiva, and she knew that Lord Shiva had no worldly wealth
and may never ever have a cottage of his own.

The marriage of Lord Shiva
with Goddess Parvati represents a marriage of a totally non-worldly person (who
is not interested in any worldly pleasure and wealth, and who is feared as
Destroyer), with a charming, rich princess, who renounces every comfort and
wealth for this marriage. LORD SHIVA WHO
IS TOTALLY DETACHED IS NOW ATTACHED BECAUSE OF THIS MARRIAGE. This
attachment is the only hope for the creation of Brahma (at least the life that
exist on this earth), as per the Hindu belief. Remember, that in the previous
Mahakalp, when Sati sacrificed her life, Shiva destroyed everything. There was
no living being left, and only after the marriage of Shiva with Parvati, life
once again started thriving. During the intermediate period, i.e. after the
death of Sati and till the marriage with Parvati, Shiva stayed in SAMADHI.

This is one more aspect of
Dharm, which gets represented during Mahashivratri. Lord Shiva is usually shown in Samadhi. When his Samadhi is complete,
creation of Brahma (i.e. the life on earth) collapses. Conscious to the
world outside the body reduces destructive power of Lord Shiva. And
symbolically, Moon represents consciousness. So that we do not miss this important aspect, every picture of
Shiva contains a white silvery crescent
of moon, on the top of the head, on the side of the right shoulder,
indicating that Lord Shiva is conscious, but only slightly (only as much as the silvery crescent visible to the full moon, OR one can also say as per the ratio of
moon visible on fourteenth dark tithi to the moon visible on full moon day), and this much CHETNA,  or, consciousness is sufficient for the world
to prosper.

AND
NOW, HOW THIS IS PHYSICALLY AND SYMBOLICALLY REPRESENTED DURING THIS FESTIVAL:

During the period of
Mahashivratri, the month is Phagun, and Phagun is the last month of Hindu calendar.
Symbolically, Mahashivratri, celebrated during the last month of the year
renews the hope of prosperity in the coming year.

The sun in Kumbha
symbolizing Shiva indicates a person, who is not worldly, and one who performs
all his Kama with detachment, and one who will be more comfortable in complete
Samadhi, unconscious of what is happening to the outside world. This is what
the world does not want, so the marriage of Lord Shiva with Goddess Parvati is
celebrated by Hindus, on the 13^th tithi of the dark fortnight. On
that tithi, moon will be in Makara. And Makara symbolizes renouncement of all
worldly wealth. This is what Goddess Parvati does for the sake of all Humanity.
She marries Lord Shiva, renouncing all her wealth.

However one more physical
phenomena must be visible and important for calibration of this festival. Since
one important aspect of the calibration of this marriage is that moon,
indicating consciousness, is visible as crescent, Mahashivratri is celebrated
on 13^th tithi, and the faithful worship throughout the night and
their worship is complete, when after sunrise they see the silvery crescent of
the moon immediately over the sun. THIS IS SOMETHING PHYSICAL AND IMPORTANT. THE RITUAL OF WORSHIP IS NOT COMPLETE
WITHOUT VIEWING OF MOON. It is true that because of clouds,
pollution, or other local conditions the moon may not be visible, but we know,
astronomically, that the last moon is visible on the 14^th tithi of
the dark fortnight, in the morning, just over the sun. Astronomically, the moon
is not visible when it is + 12 deg. away from sun. Using Hindu lunar calendar
that would mean the 15^th tithi (amavasya) of the dark fortnight and
1^st tithi of the bright fortnight.

 So that we may not miss out on this important
aspect, all pictures of Lord Shiva show this moon as silvery crescent over Lord
Shiva head. The rituals of Shivratri are only complete when the LAST moon is
physically visible on the next day morning and attempt to view this moon over
sun is made  by the faithful.

In fact history of Asia and
Africa suggest that this festival was very popular 2000 years back. The archeological
find suggest several temples with Deity of a Man with crescent moon mostly in
the body (chest, heart), in various part of ancient world. It is also a common
belief that other religion, like Jews and Muslims, who consider sighting of new
moon highly auspicious, drew the inspiration from this age old ritual of
Hindus.

The reason for this post is
that unfortunately the Hindu Religious Bodies, associated with taking such decisions,
are the only religious bodies in the world, who are not transparent. Why Mahashivratri was
celebrated on 12th Feb. on 14^th tithi, so that next morning, there
was no visibility of moon, is still a mystery. Hindus need an
answer to this. Please press for an answer and more transparency.