Sarva Pitru Amavasya 2014

The concluding Amavasya of Pitru Paksha, widely used for ancestral remembrance when a specific death tithi is unknown.

Sarva Pitru Amavasya, also called Mahalaya Amavasya, is the closing day of Pitru Paksha. During the preceding fortnight families commonly remember departed relatives on the matching lunar death tithi through shraddha, offerings of water and sesame, prayer and charity. On the concluding Amavasya, households can collectively honour ancestors whose death tithi is unknown, whose earlier rites could not be performed or whose names are no longer remembered. Thus the occasion extends gratitude beyond immediate family memory.

Traditional practices include tarpana, pinda offerings, preparing food, feeding guests or people in need and giving useful charity according to one's family custom. Different communities differ in who performs the rites and their detailed sequence. Stories of Karna's ancestral offerings sometimes appear in popular explanations of the whole Pitru Paksha, but they should not be presented as one universally documented historical cause of this particular Amavasya.

The day is Bhadrapada Krishna Amavasya in Gujarati amanta reckoning and generally Ashwin Krishna Amavasya in northern purnimanta terminology. A sunrise tithi identifies a broad date, while exact shraddha periods can depend on the local afternoon interval. The observance closes the ancestral fortnight and is distinct from Navratri's first day.

Sarva Pitru Amavasya is valued for devotion, family tradition and the spiritual or seasonal meaning attached to the day.

The shraddha done on this day covers every ancestor at once. Water with sesame, a meal given away, and a lamp left out at dusk. Anyone who missed a tithi in the fortnight does it now, and so does anyone who does not know the tithi at all.

Final Pitru Paksha observance: Gujarati Bhadrapada Krishna Amavasya; northern calendars generally Ashwin Krishna Amavasya.