Shivaratri

A poor vyadha (hunter) found no game all day in the forest, and when evening fell, for fear of ferocious animals he climbed a bel tree and settled down to spend the night.

Tormented by hunger, thirst, and worry, he could not sleep all night. To drive away drowsiness, he unknowingly plucked bel leaves and kept dropping them below. Those leaves kept falling upon a natural Shiva linga that lay beneath the tree.

At dawn he aimed his bow and arrow to kill a deer. But the deer vowed to return after meeting its young fawns. The hunter took pity and let it go, and later, true to its word, the deer came back with its family to offer itself in sacrifice.

The deer's truthfulness and his own unwitting penance melted the hunter's heart, and he renounced violence and cast away his bow and arrow.

Because, though unknowingly, he had stayed awake all night without food on the day of Mahashivaratri and offered bel leaves, Lord Shiva appeared in person and granted liberation to both the hunter and the deer. From that day on, Falgun Krishna Chaturdashi has been reverently observed as the festival of 'Mahashivaratri'.