Janmashtami is the joyful celebration of Lord Krishna’s birth. Major celebrations of Krishna        Janmashtami takes place at midnight as Krishna is said to have made his divine appearance in that hour. Fasting, bhajans, pujas and many other rituals mark Janmashtami celebrations in India.

SRI KRISHNA was raised in a pastoral setting Golkula and nearby Brindaban on the banks of Yamuna River, having been secretly carried there by his father Vasudeva immediately after his birth to Devaki in the prison in Mathura. (Miraculously, the locked doors had opened and the guards had fallen into a deep stupor, allowing the infant to be carried safely to his foster home.) His foster parents were a kindly cowherd Nanda and his loving wife Yasoda. As a child in Brindaban, Krishna amazed all with his precocious wisdom and display of incredible powers. His inner joy frequently erupted in prankish outburst ― to the amusement and delight, and sometimes consternation, of those at whom his fun was directed.
One such incident was cause of revealing to Yasoda the divine nature of the child she was mothering. The infant Krishna loved to snatch away and consume the cheese made by the milkmaids. Once he had so stuffed his cheeks that Yasoda feared he would choke, so she rushed to pry open his gorged mouth. But instead of cheese (popular accounts say it was mud he had eaten), she beheld in his open mouth the whole universe―the infinite body (vishvarupa) of the Creator―including her own image. Awestricken, she turned away from the cosmic vision, happy to see and clasp to her bosom once again her beloved little boy.

BHAGAVAN KRISHNA: THE CHRIST OF INDIA
Both were divinely conceived, and their births and God-ordained missions foretold. Jesus was born in a lowly manger; Krishna, in a prison (where his parents, Vasudeva and Devaki, were held captive by Devaki’s wicked brother Kansa, who had usurped the throne of his father). Both Jesus and Krishna were successfully spirited away to safety from a death decree to all male infants meant to seek out and destroy them at birth. Jesus was referred to as the good shepherd; Krishna in his early years was a cowherd. Jesus was tempted and threatened by Satan; the evil force pursued Krishna in demonic forms seeking unsuccessfully to slay him.
“Christ” and “Krishna” are titles having the same spiritual connotation: Jesus the Christ and Yadava the Krishna (Yadava, a family name for Krsihna, signifies his descent from Yadu, forerunner of the Vrishni dynasty). These titles identify the state of consciousness manifested by these two illumined beings, their incarnate oneness with the consciousness of God omnipresent in creation. The Universal Christ Consciousness or Kutastha Chaitanya, Universal Krishna Consciousness, is “the only begotten son” or sole undistorted reflection of God permeating every atom and point of space in the manifested cosmos. The full measure of God’s consciousness is manifested in those who have full realization of the Christ or Krishna Consciousness. As their consciousness is universal, their light is shed on all the world.

Excerpts from the book God Talks With Arjuna: The Bhagavad Gita Published by Yogoda Satsanga Society of India