SHIVA'S GREAT NIGHT.
A Hindu Holy man or "Sadhu" smeared with ashes celebrating in 2017. Image by Reuters. What is Maha Shivaratri? Every year, Maha Shivaratri is celebrated by those who follow Hinduism. In every luni-solar month of the Hindu calendar, there is a Shivratri on the 13th night and 14th day, but the biggest celebration of the Hindu god Shiva comes once a year, in late winter – either in February or March – and before spring arrives. Maha Shivaratri means ‘the great night of Shiva’, and will be celebrated this year on 24 February – but what is the festival all about and how do people mark the occasion? What is the story behind it? According to the most popular legend, during the great mythical churning of the ocean – known as Samudra Manthan, and conducted by gods and demons so that nectar could be obtained to make them immortal – a pot of poison emerged. This poison was so potent that nobody was prepared to even touch it – it had the po
