The Mithila Year
Mithila Festivals
मिथिलाक पाबनि-तिहार
Mithila keeps a festival year unlike anywhere else in India. Some of these you will know. 3 of them are celebrated almost nowhere but here.
छठ पूजा
Chhath Puja
Kartik · October–November
The most beloved festival of Mithila and Bihar — four days of extraordinary discipline in which devotees stand in river water to offer arghya to the setting and rising sun.
Explore Chhath Pujaसामा चकेवा
Sama Chakeva
Kartik · November–December
A festival that exists almost nowhere but Mithila — sisters shape clay birds, sing to them for a week, and then send them away with a farewell that sounds exactly like a vidai.
Explore Sama Chakevaविवाह पंचमी
Vivah Panchami
Margashirsha · November–December
The anniversary of the marriage of Sita and Ram. For Mithila this is not a story about somewhere else — Sita is Mithila’s daughter, and this is her wedding day.
Explore Vivah Panchamiहोली · फगुआ
Holi — Phaguwa
Phalgun · March
In Mithila, Holi is called Phaguwa — and its signature is not the colour but the singing. Groups move house to house through the morning trading Jogira couplets.
Explore Holiदुर्गा पूजा
Durga Puja
Ashwin · September–October
Mithila’s devotion to the Goddess is old and unbroken. Through Ashwin’s nine nights the region turns to Durga, and Darbhanga and Madhubani fill with pandals and Devi geet.
Explore Durga Pujaदीपावली · काली पूजा
Diwali & Kali Puja
Kartik Amavasya · October–November
Mithila keeps Diwali twice over — lamps and Lakshmi at dusk, and then Kali Puja through the same night, which is the region’s own emphasis.
Explore Diwali & Kali Pujaमधुश्रावणी
Madhushravani
Shravan · July–August
Found only in Mithila — a fortnight-long observance kept by a woman in the first Shravan after her marriage, spent at her mother’s home listening to stories.
Explore Madhushravaniकोजागरा
Kojagara
Ashwin Purnima · September–October
On the brightest full moon of the year, Mithila keeps a festival for the newly married groom — makhan, paan, card games, and a household that stays awake until morning.
Explore KojagaraWhy it matters
Festivals are how Mithila remembers itself
Songs, rituals and floor drawings carry the Maithili language and the region’s memory from one generation to the next — often through the women of the household. The same songs that mark a festival return at a wedding.