Hanuman Jayanti 2020: Date, Significance Of This Auspicious Day

Hanuman Jayanti is celebrated on the 15th day of Shukla Paksha to commemorate the birth of Lord Hanuman. The day occurs on the same day as the 15th day of the Chaitra month. In 2020 the festival is being celebrated on April 8.

According to the books and literature around Lord Hanuman, it is believed that he was born at Sunrise. On Hanuman Jayanti day temples start chanting the Hanuman Chalisa at dawn before Sunrise and stop it after Sunrise to represent Lord Hanuman Birth. This day usually falls on either the Chaitra month or in Vaisakha but south India Kerala and Tamil Nadu, it is celebrated in Dhanu which is locally known as Margazhi.

Hanuman Jayanti is celebrated on different days in various parts of the country, depending upon different religious beliefs. Whereas, the one which takes place at this time (chaitra purnima) is the most common one marked to commemorate Lord Hanuman¡¯s birthday.

Facts about Lord Hanuman

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Five real brothers

Most of the people don¡¯t know that Lord Hanuman also had five real brothers and all of them were married except Hanuman. As depicted in ¡°Brahana Purana¡±, Purana contain a description of Lord Hanuman¡¯s father kesari and his dynasty. It is believed that Vanar Raj Kesari has 6 sons, the eldest son was Lord Hanuman. His siblings were, Matiman, Shrituman, Ketuman, Gatiman and Dhritiman and they all had children.

In Sanskrit Language ¡°Hanuman¡± means ¡°disfigured jaw¡±

Sanskrit Language is considered as the origin. In this language ¡°Hanu¡± means Jaw and ¡°mana¡± means disfigured. Do you know that the childhood name of Lord Hanuman was Maruti. As we may have seen in stories, once in childhood, Maruti are the Sun as a fruit. It caused darkness in the entire word. After this incident Lord Indra became angry and he struck the child Maruti with a thunderbolt that broke his jaw. After this Lord Hanuman lost his jaw forever.

Even after being a Brahmachari, Lord Hanuman was a father of a son

This comes as a surprise to many, despite being a Brahmachari, Lord Hanuman was a father of a son. The name of the son was ¡°Makardhwaja.¡± After he burned the whole lanka, Hanuman dipped in the sea to cool his body. It is believed that his sweat was swallowed by the fish and that Markardhwaja was conceived and born to a mighty fish of the same name.

Lord Rama once issued a death sentence to Lord Hanuman

Once Narada told Hanuman to greet all the sages except the vishwamitra because he was also king once. Vishamitra was very angry with this and asked lord Rama to give the death penalty to Hanuman. Since Vishwamitra was Lord Rama¡¯s Guru, he could not ignore his order and punished Hanuman to death by arrows. After seeing the arrows coming towards him, he started chanting Ram. Seeing this Lord Rama used Brahmastra but everyone was shocked to see that it also failed due to the chanting. After this Narada went to Vishwamitra and confessed his mistake for stopping the task at hand.

"Bajrangbali" - The reason behind this name

At a time, Lord Hanuman saw Goddess Sita applying sindoor, Lord Hanuman asked her ¡°Why does she apply it on her forehead¡±. To this Sita replied that ¡°Since Shri Ram is her husband, I apply sindoor to wish for his long life¡±. After listening to this, Lord Hanuman thought if Sita Mata applied a little sindoor on her forehead, the age of Sri Ram can be increased, then if I apply it on the whole body, the life of my lord will increase tremendously. Thinking this, he applied the sindoor all over his body. Sindoor is also called ¡°Bajranj¡± which is why he is also called Bajraj Bali and this is why whenever he is worshiped sindoor is offered to him.