According to sources today day marks the birth of Vardhamana Mahavira, who was the 24th and the last spiritual teacher of Avasarpini half of the worldly cycle of time, according to the Jain cosmology. According to the Gregorian calendar, Mahavir Jayanti usually falls in the month of March or April and this year, it falls on March 29.
This auspicious Jain festival is listed as a holiday observed on March 29th in Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Gujarat, Haryana, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Madhya pradesh, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamilnadu, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and further this is a gazette holiday which means that government offices and most businesses are close.
Meanwhile t his festival is celebrated widely by the
Jain community in memory of the last spiritual teacher of the religion. A
procession is called with the idol of Lord Mahavira called the Rath
Yatra. Further Mahavir Jayanti is a festival marked with prayers and fasting and the
holiday is especially popular in the eastern state of Bihar, where Mahavira was
born near the modern town of Patna. A large celebration is held at the
Parasnatha temple, Kolkatta.
