01What Sarva Pitru Amavasya is
Sarva Pitru Amavasya is the Amavasya that ends Pitru Paksha, the dark fortnight of Bhadrapada in amanta reckoning, Ashwin in the north, set aside each year for the ancestors. Through that fortnight each family offers shraddha on the tithi that belongs to each of its forebears. Sarva Pitru means all the pitri: on this last day shraddha is made for every ancestor together, and above all for those whose tithi is not known or was missed earlier in the fortnight. It is also called Mahalaya Amavasya, and in Bengal Mahalaya opens the season of Durga Puja, which begins with the new fortnight.
02The story told of it
Pitru Paksha, the fortnight that Sarva Pitru Amavasya closes, is the part of the year the tradition gives to the ancestors. The account most often told of it concerns Karna of the Mahabharata, famous for giving gold to all who asked. The story says that his generosity had never once taken the form of food and water offered to his own ancestors, because he had not known who they were, and that he was given a fortnight to make good that lapse with offerings to the pitri. That fortnight, the account says, became Pitru Paksha, and its last day is kept for every ancestor not yet remembered.
03How it is kept
The rites of the day are shraddha and tarpan. In the morning, after a bath, water mixed with black til and kusha grass is offered from cupped hands to the pitri, facing south, with the names of the family line. From kutapa, the muhurta around midday, into the afternoon, the hours the tradition gives to the ancestors, pinda of rice and sesame are offered and a meal is cooked, often kheer, puri and the favourite dishes of the household, first given to Brahmins, a cow, crows and a dog. Many families go to Gaya, Haridwar or a riverbank. In the evening a lamp is lit at the door.
04How the day is chosen
It is kept on the day its tithi is current at sunrise in your city.
05Sarva Pitru Amavasya in other years
