Basant Panchami

Vasant Panchami
Vasant Panchami welcomes spring, people dress is yellow to mark flowering mustard fields
Official name	Vasant Panchami
Also called	Basant Panchami
Observed by	Hindus and Sikhs in India, Nepal
Type	religious, cultural
Significance	Spring, harvest, goddess Saraswati
Celebrations	Saraswati puja, Music events, Start studies, Yellow dress, Kite flying
2017 date	Wednesday, 1 February
2018 date	Monday, 22 January
2019 date	Sunday, 10 February

Vasant Panchami, also spelled Basant Panchami, is a Hindu spring festival. It is observed on the fifth day of the Indian traditional calendar month of Magha, which typically falls in the Gregorian months of January or February.

The festival is celebrated in various ways depending on the region. Many revere goddess Saraswati, the Hindu deity of learning, arts and music. She is celebrated with visits to her temples, by playing music, as well as the day when parents sit down with their children, initiate them into writing letters of alphabet or study together.

Others mark it as the festival of god Kama, the Hindu deity of love, by remembering the loved one particularly one's spouse or special friend, celebrating it with spring flowers. Its link with the god of love and its traditions have led some scholars to call it "a Hindu form of Valentine's Day". Others wear yellow clothes and eat yellow rice to emulate the yellow mustard (sarson) flower fields, or play by flying kites.

The Vasant Panchami also marks the start of preparation for Holika bonfire and Holi, which occurs forty days later.

Vasant Panchami has a specific meaning: Vasant means "spring" and Panchami means "the fifth day." Vasant Panchami falls on the fifth day of spring.

Vasant Panchami is celebrated every year on the fifth day of the bright half of the Hindu luni-solar calendar month of Magha, which typically falls in late January or February. It is treated as the start of spring, though it is generally winter-like in northern India, and more spring-like in central and western parts of India.

The festival is particularly observed in the north, central and western parts by Hindus of India and in Nepal. It has been a historical tradition of Sikhs as well.

For many Hindus, Vasant Panchami is the festival dedicated to goddess Saraswati who is their ancient goddess of knowledge, language, music and all arts. She is the wife of Brahma, and she symbolizes creative energy and power in all its form, including longing and love (kama). The season and festival also reflects the agricultural fields which are ripening with yellow flowers of mustard crop, which Hindus associate with Saraswati's favorite color. People dress in yellow saris or shirts or accessories, share yellow colored snacks and sweets. Some add saffron to their rice then eat yellow cooked rice as a part of an elaborate feast.