Couples bathe at midnight in the sacred Radha Kund near Govardhan on Ahoi Ashtami

Radha Kunda Snan is the midnight bath taken in Radha Kund, the sacred lake at the foot of Govardhan Hill near Mathura, on the night of Ahoi Ashtami (Kartika Krishna Ashtami). Gaudiya Vaishnavas regard Radha Kund as the holiest of all places, even above Vrindavan, because it is the pool of Srimati Radharani herself. According to the Padma Purana and Gaudiya tradition, after Krishna killed Arishtasura, who had come in the form of a bull, Radha and the gopis said he had incurred the sin of killing a bull and must bathe in all holy rivers. Krishna struck the ground with his heel, created Shyam Kund and summoned the tirthas into it. Radha and her companions then dug their own pond with their bangles, and the tirthas begged to enter it too; it is said to have appeared at midnight on this Ashtami. Lakhs of devotees gather on this night, and at midnight they take a dip together. Couples who wish for a child bathe hand in hand and offer pumpkin (petha) and other white offerings to Radharani, and many return the next year with their child to give thanks. The ghats are lit with thousands of lamps as kirtan continues through the night.

Many devotees fast through the day and eat after the midnight bath.