Hindu calendar

Hindu Festival Calendar

Every festival date on this page is computed from the Moon and the Sun, not copied from a list. Each one shows the rule it came from, the tithi it sits on, and the lunar month in both the amanta and purnimanta reckonings.

Computed for Delhi, the reference meridian Indian almanacs publish against. Festival dates are not published per city: one that moved between Delhi and Chennai would be useless for planning.

Adhika masa

Jyeshtha falls twice this year. The first is Adhika Jyeshtha, an intercalary month inserted because it contains no solar ingress, and it carries no festivals. Everything after it sits about a month later than you may expect.

Hindu calendar

Coming up

The next festivals and observances, counted from today.

Hindu calendar

Every festival, with its rule

Each one has a page giving the tithi it sits on, the lunar month in both reckonings, and the dates it falls on from 2025 to 2030.

Hindu calendar

Calendar by year

The full year in one table: every named festival and every monthly vrata, with the tithi each one falls on.

Hindu calendar

How these dates are worked out

A festival is a lunar month, a paksha and a tithi. The month is the part most calendars get wrong, because a lunar month is named after the Sun: the month that opens with the Sun in Meena is Chaitra, the one that opens with the Sun in Mesha is Vaishakha, and so on around the zodiac.

That rule also settles the leap month. Twelve lunations run 354 days against a 365 day year, so every two or three years a lunar month contains no solar ingress at all. That month is adhika, it duplicates the name of the month after it, and it carries no festivals. Miss it and every festival for the rest of the year lands a month early.

Then there is the second question, which is harder: a tithi runs anywhere from 21.5 to 26 hours, so it does not line up with a calendar day. The tithi has to be present at the hour the rite is actually performed. Ganesh Chaturthi is established at midday, Vijayadashami in the fourth fifth of the day, Diwali at pradosh just after sunset, Maha Shivaratri at solar midnight, and Karva Chauth at moonrise. Only the default is sunrise.

Hindu calendar

Questions

Why does another site show a different date?: Usually one of three reasons. It may be using the sunrise tithi for a festival whose rite is at midday or at midnight, which shifts the date by one day in perhaps one year in three. It may be reading a purnimanta month name into an amanta calculation, which shifts it by a month. Or the tithi genuinely covers the deciding moment on two days, in which case both dates are defensible and this page says so on the entry.
Amanta or purnimanta: which does this page use?: It computes in amanta and shows both names. The two run half a month apart during krishna paksha, so Maha Shivaratri is Magha Krishna Chaturdashi in Pune and Phalguna Krishna Chaturdashi in Delhi. Same night, two month names. Computing in one and displaying both is what keeps a rule copied from a north Indian source from landing a month out.
What is an adhika masa?: An intercalary month, inserted when a lunation contains no solar ingress. It takes the name of the month that follows it, so a year can hold Adhika Shravana and then Nija Shravana. It carries no festivals. This is why Sharad Navratri began on 17 October in 2020 rather than in September.
Are these dates right for my city?: For anywhere in India, yes. Indian almanacs publish one national calendar against a reference meridian, because a Diwali that moved between cities would be useless. The sunrise, sunset and moonrise a rule is evaluated against move by well under an hour across the country, which almost never changes which day a tithi lands on.