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Festivals

The Night the Moon Held Nothing Back

One night a year, the moon is said to hold back nothing of itself. On that same night, a goddess asks a single question of the whole sleeping world: who is still awake?

On the full moon night of the month of Ashvin, tradition holds that the moon reaches complete fullness. It shows all sixteen of its kalas, its phases or aspects, at once. No other night of the year is held to be quite this full.

It was on this exact night that Krishna performed the Raas Leela, a great circular dance, with the gopis of Vrindavan. This is recorded in the Bhagavata Purana's tenth canto. The gopis heard the sound of his flute carried through the night air. They left their homes and their daily duties behind, drawn out into the forest by a music they could not resist.

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