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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 pakshaThe bright or the dark half of the lunar month. Shukla runs from the new Moon to the full one, Krishna from full back to new. and a tithiThe lunar day. It runs from one step of the Moon's phase to the next, so it rarely begins at sunrise. Fasts and festivals are fixed by it.. 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 MeenaThe twelfth and last rashi, Pisces. Ruled by Guru and a water sign: soft, imaginative and absorbent, it takes on whatever room it is in. is ChaitraThe first lunar month, running across March and April. Its bright first day is the new year, kept as Gudi Padwa and Ugadi, and Ram Navami follows., the one that opens with the Sun in Mesha is VaishakhaThe second lunar month, April into May. Akshaya Tritiya falls in its bright half, and Buddha Purnima closes it., 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 tithiThe lunar day. It runs from one step of the Moon's phase to the next, so it rarely begins at sunrise. Fasts and festivals are fixed by it. 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 ChaturthiGanesha's tithi, the fourth of each half, kept as Sankashti and Vinayaka Chaturthi. It is also a Rikta tithi, so no wedding is set on it. is established at midday, Vijayadashami in the fourth fifth of the day, Diwali at pradoshThe stretch just after sunset, roughly an hour and a half of it. Diwali is fixed by the tithi running then, and the Trayodashi vrat is kept in it. 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 tithiThe lunar day. It runs from one step of the Moon's phase to the next, so it rarely begins at sunrise. Fasts and festivals are fixed by it. 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 purnimantaThe reckoning in which a lunar month ends at the full Moon. North India counts this way, so through the dark half its month name runs one ahead. month name into an amantaThe reckoning in which a lunar month ends at the new Moon. Maharashtra, Gujarat and the south count this way, and our dates are computed in it. 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 amantaThe reckoning in which a lunar month ends at the new Moon. Maharashtra, Gujarat and the south count this way, and our dates are computed in it. and shows both names. The two run half a month apart during krishna pakshaThe dark fortnight, full Moon back to new, the Moon thinning each night. It is not the bad half: Janmashtami, Dhanteras and Shivaratri all sit in it., so Maha Shivaratri is MaghaThe eleventh lunar month, January into February. It is the bathing month at Prayag, and Vasant Panchami falls in its bright half. Krishna ChaturdashiThe fourteenth tithi, the last before the full or the new Moon. Maha Shivaratri sits on a dark one, and for weddings it counts as Rikta. in Pune and PhalgunaThe twelfth and last lunar month, February into March. Holika burns on its full Moon, and the year turns with the month after it. 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 ShravanaThe fifth lunar month, July into August, and the month of the Shiva fasts. Its Mondays are kept as vrats, and Raksha Bandhan closes it. and then NijaThe real month. When a leap month borrows a name, the second of the pair is the nija one, and every festival of that name is kept in it. 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 tithiThe lunar day. It runs from one step of the Moon's phase to the next, so it rarely begins at sunrise. Fasts and festivals are fixed by it. lands on.
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