01What Akshaya Tritiya is
Akshaya Tritiya, or Akha Teej, is the third day of the bright half of Vaishakha, in April or May. Akshaya means that which does not diminish, and the tradition holds the whole day auspicious, so that new work, marriages and purchases are begun on it without a separate muhurat. It is also kept as the birth of Parashurama, the sixth avatar of Vishnu.
02The story told of it
The Puranas hold this the day the Treta Yuga began, the day the Ganga came down to earth, and the day Kubera received his wealth from Shiva. The Mahabharata tradition adds that on this day Krishna gave the Pandavas, in exile, the Akshaya Patra, a vessel that never emptied, and that Sudama visited Krishna with a handful of beaten rice.
03How it is kept
Lakshmi and Vishnu are worshipped in the morning with sandalwood, tulsi, flowers and offerings of barley, and many families give charity of water pots, grain, fans and clothes, as the season turns hot. The tradition holds the day good for buying gold and for beginning anything new, so jewellers stay open late and many weddings are set on it.
04How the day is chosen
Akshaya Tritiya is kept on the morning Tritiya is current at sunrise, if it lasts through Pratahkala, the first fifth of the day; otherwise on the day before, when Tritiya begins in the morning. The puja belongs to the morning, from sunrise to midday, while Tritiya lasts.
05Akshaya Tritiya in other years