Kali Yugadi — traditional anniversary of the beginning of Kali Yuga; sacred for daan and naam japa

Kali Yugadi marks the traditional anniversary of the beginning of Kali Yuga, the fourth and present age of the cosmic cycle. The Puranas describe four yugas — Satya, Treta, Dwapara and Kali — each shorter and spiritually darker than the one before, and Kali Yuga, lasting 432,000 years, is held to have begun in 3102 BCE, soon after Lord Krishna left the earth. Nirnaya Sindhu and other dharma texts name a yugadi tithi for the start of each age: Kartika Shukla Navami for Satya Yuga, Vaishakha Shukla Tritiya (Akshaya Tritiya) for Treta, Magha Amavasya for Dwapara, and Bhadrapada Krishna Trayodashi (Ashwin Krishna Trayodashi in the Purnimanta reckoning) for Kali Yuga. Yugadi days are regarded as especially fruitful for snan, daan, shraddha and japa — whatever is given on them is said to become inexhaustible. The scriptures also console that Kali Yuga has one great virtue: what took long austerity in earlier ages is attained now simply by chanting the Lord's name, as the Kali Santarana Upanishad and the Bhagavatam declare.

No fast is prescribed; many keep a satvik diet as the day falls within Pitrupaksha.