Welcome to Hindu New Year 5112 Vikrita

Between Mid March and Mid April, different ethnic communities celebrate their New Years. For instance on March 29th the ethnics of Karnataka, Andhra Pradhesh, Sindhi and Maharashtra celebrate their New Years. The Telugu and Kannada people call it Ugadhi, whille Marathis call it Gudi Padwa. On April 13th or April 14th, the Tamils celebrate Puthandu, Malayalees, Vishu, Punjabis Vaishaki and Bengalis Bohaag Bihu. These vary new year days however share a common origin, which is Astrological.

In the Hindu Astrological system, Jyothisha, April 13/14 in the Gregorian (Western) calendar is the day when the Sun will have come full circle around the 12 zodiacs and restart the cycle in the traditional zodiac number one, that is Mesha, or Aries.

The differing dates among the different Indian Hindu communities reflect legends or important historical events of the community, such as the day God began His cycle of creation or the coronation day of an influential King of the community.

As with all new years, the Hindu New Year is a time of review and renewal. Traditionally households will spring clean their homes, wear new clothes and attend the temple at the crack of dawn for special prayers.

While temples conduct more elaborate prayers on this day to signify the birth of the new year, there is no specific deity for whom importance is given. From a religious point of view it is a general new year as its significance is mainly astrological. Thus most temple will often invite astrology pundits to give a general reading for the year as part of the morning prayer session that many devotees eagerly attend.

The year 5112 of the Hindu New Year is a number whose significance has been lost to antiquity. However it is not the year when Hindus believe the Earth was born or that Creation began. In fact the Hindu calendar is part of much more vast cosmic time cycle known as a Kalpa, which is estimated to be over four billion years. In this system, the Hindu year or varsha has 60 names. Thus 60 earth years create one cycle. The name of this year is Vikrita.

The 60 names are a random pick of words that define God's nature, human characteristics or human development stages from a fetus to death. For instance last year, which was Sarvadharin which means The All-Pervasive Light, a reference to God as Divine Light. Though there are astrologers who will draw general conclusion on the year based on the names of the year, I personally don't put much stock into it.