Tulsi Vivah

Festival marking the marriage of the
goddess Lakshmi and the god Vishnu,
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Tulsi Vivah
celebrated on the eleventh day of the
bright (waxing) half of the lunar month
of Kartik. It is also celebrated as
Devotthayan Ekadashi. On this day
devotees (bhakta) place a shalagram (a
black stone containing the spiralshaped fossil shell of a prehistoric sea
creature, understood as a “self-manifest” form of Vishnu) in a pot containing
a tulsi plant (considered a form of
Lakshmi). Thus they symbolically unite
Vishnu and Lakshmi and perform the
marriage ceremony for them, complete
with festive songs.