Maha Shivaratri, the "Great Night of Shiva", is an annual festival honouring the god Shiva, kept on the fourteenth night of the dark fortnight of the month of Phalguna (or Magha in some reckonings), on the moonless night of late winter. Tradition gives it several overlapping meanings: it is variously said to mark the marriage of Shiva and Parvati, the night of his cosmic dance (tandava), or his manifestation as the jyotirlinga, an infinite pillar of light and fire whose top and bottom neither Brahma nor Vishnu could find, an image of the unbounded absolute.
Unlike the more festive Hindu holidays, Maha Shivaratri is solemn and ascetic in character, a night of self-restraint and inward focus rather than public revelry. Devotees keep a strict fast and an all-night vigil, staying awake through the four watches of the night in the temple or at home, chanting the names of Shiva and the mantra Om Namah Shivaya, meditating, and offering water, milk, honey and bilva (bel) leaves in the ritual bathing (abhisheka) of the Shiva lingam. The night is understood as especially favourable for overcoming ignorance and drawing near to the divine, and the wakefulness is itself the central discipline, a deliberate turning of the darkest night of the month toward the god of transcendence.