The three main festivals in Shirdi of two-four days each are Ramnavami (March/April), Guru Purnima (July),and Vijayadashami (September). In Shirdi, these festivals are celebrated with great passion, verve and heartfulness.There is a programme of puja, music (bhajan) public parayana (reading of scriptures and devotional texts) and exuberant processions with the palanquin and the rath (cart). The Samadhi Mandir remains open all night during one of these days with Dwarkamai being open the previous night.
Guru Purnima ("purnima" means full-moon) is the day on which disciples and devotees honour and felicitate their guru and seek his or her special blessings. Although it is not a major festival for everyone in India, it is of great importance in Shirdi, perhaps because it is the only festival which Baba asked us to celebrate.The festival originated in the Buddha's time when the monks used to take diksba (instructions on their spiritual practice) at the beginning of the annual four month rains-retreat. The practice was then borrowed by the Jain tradition and later the Hindus.
Vijayadasami is celebrated throughout India, under different names and with regional variations, as the victory of good over evil. For Sai devotees, it is venerated as the holy day that their beloved gurudeva attained mahasamadhi (also known as punyatithi) and is a big festival in Shirdi.This was also the day on which the statue of Baba "came to life" and was inaugurated in the Samadhi Mandir.
In 1987, Gopalrao Gund proposed holding in urs as in expression of his gratitude to Baba for having been granted the birth of a son after many childless years. Baba gave his permission for the celebration and fixed the day for Ramnavami.This was an ingenious touch of Baba's. Urs is a Muslim festival honoring a Muslim Saint (usually one who passed away);by holding the Urs, on the day of a Hindu festival, the two communities were brought closer tighter in a natural yet remarkable way.The festival gradually grew in importance and in 1912 the festival was held in a grand style.Since then people are celebrating on this day.