Janmashtami, or more popularly known as Krishna Janmashtami is the birthday of Lord Krishna which is celebrated with great fervor and zeal in India during the monsoon month. If we go by the Hindu calendar, this important day falls on the Ashtami or eighth day of the Krishna Paksh or dark fortnight of Bhadon month. No one actually knows when this festival originated! May be a thousand years back this festival found its foothold in our culture. One would actually come across various legendary stories and myths encircling the birth of Janmashtami.
Among all of them, the most widely accepted view is that Lord Krishna is the eighth incarnate of Lord Vishnu. We all have known from Mahabharata that the birth of Lord Krishna happened to kill the demon Kansa who happens to be his maternal uncle. Whenever there is some imbalance in the universe regarding peace and prosperity, it is said that Lord Vishnu comes to save the humanity from the hands of demons and goons.