This is the Mahāśivarātri you SHOULD celebrate. Here's why.

Siva Sakti
(Source: hindumythologybynarin.blogspot.in)

If you have ever considered celebrating Mahāśivarātri, make it this one. It is quite literally one in a million – rather, one in 30 million, says Sivasri. Rajappa Sivacharyar, the sthānīka priest of the famous Sri Ekamranatha Temple in Kanchipuram, Tamil Nadu.

The learned Śaivasiddhānta pandit, refers to the Kāraṇāgama, one of the twenty eight canonical Śaivāgama texts to validate his point.

Every month, the caturdaśī tithi, i.e., the fourteenth lunar day, just before amāvasya, the New Moon Day, is celebrated as māsa śivarātri in all śaiva temples. And once a year, the śivarātri that occurs in the month of māgha is celebrated as Mahāśivarātri. There is a lovely story, involving a humble hunter who is lost in the forest, chased by a tiger and spends the night up a bel tree, plucking and dropping the bel leaves one by one all through the night so he wouldn't fall asleep and fall prey (literally) to the tiger waiting below. As morning dawns, he is blessed with the darshan of Lord Siva, as he had stayed up all night and though inadvertently, offered bel leaves in worship to the Sivalinga at the base of the tree. I love how this story shows that worship performed even without any deeper/ higher knowledge bears fruit - there's hope for us after all!  

Śivarātri is considered the union of Śakti represented by trayodaśī, the thirteenth lunar day, and Śiva, represented by caturdaśī. But it is not often that both these tithis fall on the same day.

Further, those who fast on śivarātri are advised to break the fast the next day with bhāraṇa, the food recommended by the śāstra-s. But this is also not usually possible since the next day is usually amāvasya, and therefore, some people would have tarpana and other rituals to be performed, precluding them from taking the bhāraṇa food.

Next, it is also not often that Mahāśivarātri falls on somavāra – Monday – which is especially auspicious for Śiva.      

The elderly Sivacharya, one of the oldest scholars today, says that this Vilambi year, Mahāśivarātri fulfils all of the above three criteria – it falls on a Monday, it is not followed by amāvasya, and the night truly has a commingling of trayodaśī and caturdaśī tithi-s. The Uttara Kāraṇāgama (chapter 33) declares that fasting on such a day, offering puja at home, having the darshan of Lord Śiva at various temples and keeping an all-night vigil called jāgran,  gives multifold benefits equivalent to that obtained by observing 3 Crore sivarātri-s.

So, gentle reader, may it be this year! May the Lord dance in your heart and guide your path. Happy Mahāśivarātri!

Hara Hara!