HinduCalendar.in New Delhi

Vrats and fasting days

Recurring observances, with their next dates for New Delhi. Where a fast's ending depends on moonrise or a parana window, that time is local โ€” and it moves by more than half an hour across India on the same evening.

Smarta and Vaishnava practice genuinely differ on some of these โ€” Ekadashi most of all. Tell us your tradition and we'll say when the two diverge instead of quietly picking one.

In the next seven days

Kept by the tithi (13)

These return on a fixed lunar day, so they move against the civil calendar every month. Which civil day carries the tithi is decided by a particular moment โ€” and that moment differs by observance.

Chaturthi

monthly

decided by the tithi running at sunrise

The monthly Ganesha tithi in the bright fortnight. Kept lightly โ€” a Ganesha puja and often a single meal โ€” as the recurring counterpart of the annual festival.

How this vrat is kept โ†’

Shashti

monthly

decided at midday, at madhyahna

The monthly observance of Kartikeya. The Kartika Skanda Shashti is the annual six-day form, concluding in the Soorasamharam.

How this vrat is kept โ†’

Saptami

monthly

decided by the tithi running at sunrise

The monthly Saptami, kept for Surya. The Magha occurrence โ€” Ratha Saptami โ€” is the annual form and is far more widely observed than the monthly one.

How this vrat is kept โ†’

Ashtami

twice monthly

decided by the tithi running at sunrise

The monthly Ashtami observances. Masik Durgashtami in the bright fortnight is the household's monthly Durga observance and the monthly echo of Maha Ashtami in Navaratri. Kalashtami in the dark fortnight belongs to Bhairava and is kept in the night.

How this vrat is kept โ†’

Navami

monthly

decided by the tithi running at sunrise

The monthly Navami. Kept lightly for the Devi, as the recurring counterpart of the Navami that concludes Navaratri.

How this vrat is kept โ†’

Ekadashi

twice each lunar month

decided before dawn, at arunodaya

The fortnightly fast of Vishnu. Twenty-four in an ordinary year, twenty-six when an adhika masa falls, each with its own name and katha.

How this vrat is kept โ†’

Pradosh Vrat

twice each lunar month

decided around sunset, during pradosha

The twice-monthly Shiva observance, kept in the ninety minutes around sunset with abhisheka and the Pradosha stotra.

How this vrat is kept โ†’

Dwadashi

monthly

decided by the tithi running at sunrise

The tithi on which the Ekadashi fast is broken. The parana window is short and is published with the Ekadashi rather than with the Dwadashi itself.

How this vrat is kept โ†’

Purnima

monthly

The monthly full moon. Kept with a fast in many households, and very commonly with the Satyanarayana vrata katha.

How this vrat is kept โ†’

Sankashti Chaturthi

monthly

decided at moonrise

The monthly Ganesha fast, broken after sighting the moon and offering arghya. The Chaturthi falling on a Tuesday is Angarki Sankashti and is kept more widely.

How this vrat is kept โ†’

Ahoi Ashtami

decided around sunset, during pradosha

A mothers' vrat, kept for the wellbeing and long life of one's children. The fast runs through the day and is broken in the evening, in many families only after the stars are seen โ€” and in some, after moonrise.

How this vrat is kept โ†’

Masik Shivaratri

monthly

decided in the middle of the night, at nishita

The monthly night of Shiva: a lighter form of the Maha Shivaratri observance, kept with a fast and worship in the nishita watch.

How this vrat is kept โ†’

Amavasya

monthly

decided in the afternoon, at aparahna

The monthly new moon: the day for ancestral offerings โ€” tarpana and where kept, shraddha. Mahalaya Amavasya in Ashvina is the year's principal one.

How this vrat is kept โ†’

Kept by the weekday (2)

These are fixed to a day of the week within one lunar month, so they land on the same weekday each time and a different tithi.

Sawan Somwar Vrat

weekly in Shravana

the weekday is counted from sunrise

The Mondays of Shravana, kept for Shiva. Water or milk is offered on the linga, many keep a fast through the day, and the temples fill โ€” the Kanwar pilgrimage to fetch Ganga water belongs to this month.

No dates published for this in the next four months. That may mean the observance genuinely does not fall in this window, or that our dataset does not carry this section for these months โ€” we do not distinguish those by guessing.

How this vrat is kept โ†’

Mangala Gauri Vrat

weekly in Shravana

the weekday is counted from sunrise

The Tuesdays of Shravana, kept by married women โ€” in most families for the first five years of marriage โ€” for the husband's long life and the household's wellbeing. The puja is done in a group where possible, and the katha is recited.

No dates published for this in the next four months. That may mean the observance genuinely does not fall in this window, or that our dataset does not carry this section for these months โ€” we do not distinguish those by guessing.

How this vrat is kept โ†’

Kept by sighting the moon (1)

Not a tithi rule at all โ€” the observance follows the first visible crescent after the new moon.

Chandra Darshan

monthly

decided by the evening sighting

The evening on which the new moon's crescent is first seen after Amavasya, low in the west shortly after sunset. Seeing it is held to be auspicious, and in many households the day's fast is broken only after the sighting.

How this vrat is kept โ†’