You open two calendar apps on your phone, side by side, in the days before a festival, and they do not give it the same day. Your mother has already fixed the date with the family, your sister in Bengaluru has a different one from a temple leaflet, and someone on the family group has typed "which one is correct?" with four question marks. Nobody is lying to you. Both calendars are reading the same sky, and they are answering different questions about it.
If two calendars give you different dates for the same festival, then the gap is usually the tithi (lunar day) cut-off and your city, not a mistake. Each festival asks for its tithi to be present at one particular moment, such as sunrise, evening twilight or moonrise, and that moment shifts the calendar date.
New Delhi dates, with the moment each tithi is tested in brackets:
- Karwa Chauth: Thursday 29 October 2026 (moonrise).
- Dhanteras: Friday 6 November 2026 (evening twilight).
- Naraka Chaturdashi (Choti Diwali): Sunday 8 November 2026 (between moonrise and sunrise).
- Lakshmi Puja (Diwali): Sunday 8 November 2026 (evening twilight).
- Govardhan Puja: Tuesday 10 November 2026 (sunrise).
- Bhai Dooj: Wednesday 11 November 2026 (afternoon).
Why one festival can land on two calendar dates
A festival is fixed to a tithi, not to a date. A tithi is a lunar day: the time the Moon takes to pull twelve degrees further ahead of the Sun as seen from Earth. Thirty of them make a lunar month, fifteen in the bright half and fifteen in the dark half.
A tithi runs for roughly a day, but it almost never starts at midnight and almost never ends at midnight. It begins at some clock time and ends about a day later. So a single tithi usually touches two dates, and the calendar maker must choose one of them.
That choice is not arbitrary. For each festival the tradition names a moment of the day at which the tithi must be present. Karwa Chauth looks at moonrise, Lakshmi Puja looks at evening twilight, and Bhai Dooj looks at the afternoon. Change the moment and you can change the date, even when both calendars agree on when the tithi begins and ends.
Then comes the second cause, the one a calendar cannot show unless it names its city. Sunrise and moonrise are local events. The tithi boundary is one instant for the whole planet, but the moment it is tested against moves with your longitude and latitude.
A tithi that has already ended before sunrise in New Delhi can still be running at sunrise in Kolkata, because the Sun rises earlier there. Every date in this post is for New Delhi. In another city, most often one abroad, a date can shift by one day.
The 5 moments of the day at which a tithi is tested
Five moments do most of the work in the festival calendar. Here they are in the order of the day, each with its plain name, so you can read any calendar's reasoning.
- Sunrise, called udaya: the tithi running at sunrise owns the calendar day in the panchang (the daily almanac) and decides many vrats (fasts).
- Afternoon, called aparahna, the stretch after midday: used for Bhai Dooj and for several rites to the ancestors.
- Evening twilight, called pradosh: the stretch after sunset, used for Dhanteras and for Lakshmi Puja.
- Moonrise, called chandrodaya: used for Karwa Chauth, where the fast is linked to seeing the Moon.
- Midnight, called nishita: used for Janmashtami, when the tithi must cover the middle of the night.
The same tithi can pass the sunrise test on one date and the twilight test on another: a tithi that begins in the late afternoon is absent at that day's sunrise but present at that evening's twilight. A sunrise-rule calendar prints the next day; a twilight-rule calendar prints the same day. Both are correct, for their rule.
This is also why I would rather give you the rule than a verdict. A bare date can be checked against the daily panchang for your city, and a date with its rule attached lets you check the reasoning as well. When you bring me a festival date, I will tell you which moment the rule tests it at.
A worked example, without clock times
Suppose the Amavasya (new-moon) tithi begins in the afternoon of day one and ends in the afternoon of day two. At sunrise on day one the Chaturdashi, the fourteenth tithi, is still running, so the panchang labels day one a Chaturdashi day. By twilight the Amavasya has begun, so the evening puja belongs to day one. At sunrise on day two the Amavasya is running, so the panchang labels day two the Amavasya date.
Karwa Chauth on 29 October 2026 and the moonrise rule
Karwa Chauth fell on Thursday 29 October 2026 in New Delhi, eight days before Dhanteras opens the five days of Diwali. It is a fast observed by many married women across north and west India, and the day is tied to the Chaturthi, the fourth tithi of the waning fortnight. The Karva Chauth entry on Wikipedia lists the same 2026 date.
Why moonrise? Because the observance is built around the evening sighting of the Moon, so the tradition asks for the Chaturthi tithi to be present at moonrise, not at sunrise. Picture a year when the Chaturthi begins mid-morning and runs into the next morning. A sunrise-rule calendar would print the second day, while the moonrise rule prints the first, because the tithi is present at that evening's moonrise.
The Moon rises at different clock times in Lucknow, Bengaluru and Delhi. Abroad the gap grows. A moonrise in the Americas comes many hours after the Indian one, and the tithi itself may have ended in between, so a calendar built there can print a different day.
I do not print moonrise times in a blog post, because a time is only honest for one city. The panchang page computes the day's timings for your location. For the hour-by-hour windows of a day rather than its date, see the muhurta page, the Abhijeet Muhurta guide and the Rahu Kalam guide.
The 5 days of Diwali 2026, and the moment each one asks for
For New Delhi the five Diwali festivals fall between 6 November 2026 and 11 November 2026, computed from a modern ephemeris (a table of planetary positions) with the Lahiri ayanamsa, the same setting I use for a Kundli (birth horoscope). The city and the rule let you reproduce the dates. The ayanamsa is the offset that fixes where the sidereal, star-based zodiac starts, and it makes no difference to a tithi, as the third check below shows.
Five festivals fall on four of those six dates, because Naraka Chaturdashi and Lakshmi Puja share Sunday 8 November 2026. Four of the five moments above are at work inside those six days: sunrise, the afternoon, evening twilight and moonrise, which opens the pre-dawn window of Naraka Chaturdashi. That is why these days need the rule most.
Dhanteras, Friday 6 November 2026
Dhanteras takes the Trayodashi, the thirteenth tithi of the waning fortnight, and tests it at evening twilight. The day is traditionally associated with buying metal, from a steel tumbler to gold, and with the worship of Dhanvantari, the deity of health. I will not tell you that a purchase on this day changes anything in your Kundli; the custom stands on its own, and that is reason enough for the families who keep it.
Naraka Chaturdashi and Lakshmi Puja, Sunday 8 November 2026
Diwali itself, the evening of Lakshmi Puja, is Sunday 8 November 2026 in New Delhi, and Naraka Chaturdashi falls on that Sunday too. Two festivals on one date look like a misprint. It is not.
Naraka Chaturdashi, also called Choti Diwali (small Diwali), wants the Chaturdashi tithi present in the pre-dawn stretch between moonrise and sunrise, the time of the traditional early-morning oil bath. Lakshmi Puja wants the Amavasya tithi in the evening twilight, and when the Chaturdashi ends during the day and the Amavasya begins before dusk, both tests succeed on one date.
The panchang also carries a plain Amavasya entry for Monday 9 November 2026, because it names each day by the tithi running at sunrise. The evening-twilight rule does not care which day the tithi mostly occupies; it cares where the tithi is at dusk. So the puja date and the Amavasya calendar date can differ by one day.
Govardhan Puja and Bhai Dooj 2026: the last 2 days
Govardhan Puja, Tuesday 10 November 2026
Govardhan Puja, also called Annakut, the mountain of food, is Tuesday 10 November 2026 in New Delhi. It takes the Pratipada, the first tithi of the waxing fortnight, tested at sunrise in most calendars, so it falls one or two days after Lakshmi Puja; in 2026 it is two. The Amavasya is still running at sunrise on Monday 9 November 2026, so the Pratipada fails the sunrise test that day and Govardhan Puja moves to the Tuesday, leaving one plain Amavasya day between Lakshmi Puja and Annakut.
Bhai Dooj, Wednesday 11 November 2026
Bhai Dooj, Wednesday 11 November 2026, closes the five days. It takes the Dwitiya, the second tithi, and the convention tests it in the afternoon, the aparahna. That afternoon rule is one reason Bhai Dooj can fall two days after Lakshmi Puja in one year and three days after it in another, depending on when the Dwitiya begins. In 2026 the gap is three days.
Two lessons follow. First, the gap between Lakshmi Puja and Bhai Dooj is not fixed, so a rule of thumb that always puts them two days apart will be wrong in some years. Second, the afternoon test is local, like the moonrise test, so Bhai Dooj can move by a day between a city in India and one abroad.
3 checks to run on any festival calendar
Check 1: which city?
A calendar that does not name its city is giving you somebody else's sunrise. The dates here are for New Delhi, and a calendar built for another city, most often one abroad, such as a city in New Jersey, may legitimately differ by a day on the moonrise-rule and sunrise-rule festivals. If the calendar names no city, treat its dates as a rough guide and look up your own.
Check 2: which moment?
A careful calendar states the rule it used, in a footnote or on its method page. If it says Karwa Chauth is the day the Chaturthi is present at moonrise, you can check that against any tithi table. If it only prints a date, you can check the date but not the reasoning behind it.
Check 3: which method, and does the ayanamsa matter?
For a tithi, the answer is no. The Lahiri ayanamsa and the Raman ayanamsa differ by more than a degree, but a tithi is the gap between the Moon and the Sun, so the ayanamsa cancels out of every tithi boundary and none of this post's dates depends on it.
Ayanamsa moves the signs in your Kundli. It does not move Diwali.
A Sankranti, such as Makar Sankranti, is different, because it hangs on the Sun entering a sidereal sign, and there Lahiri and Raman can name different days.
One more cause is the method. Some printed almanacs still compute tithi boundaries from older tables rather than from a modern ephemeris, and the two can differ by enough to push a boundary across sunrise. A calendar that names its method, its city and its rule is one you can check.
Frequently asked questions
Why do calendars show Karwa Chauth 2026 on two different dates?
Calendars print another day for Karwa Chauth 2026 when they are built for a different city or test the Chaturthi at a different moment; in New Delhi it fell on Thursday 29 October 2026. The tradition looks for the tithi at moonrise, a local event that shifts with longitude and latitude, so a Delhi calendar and one built for a city abroad can legitimately differ. Check which city each one names before deciding which is wrong.
Why do calendars show Diwali 2026 on 8 November but the Amavasya on 9 November?
Lakshmi Puja on Sunday 8 November 2026 is tested at evening twilight, while the panchang names a day by the tithi running at sunrise. In New Delhi the Amavasya tithi has begun by that evening's dusk and is still running at sunrise on 9 November, so the panchang calls Monday 9 November the Amavasya day. Both statements describe one tithi, tested at two different moments.
Does the ayanamsa change festival dates?
No, not for the tithi boundaries behind Karwa Chauth, Diwali or Bhai Dooj. A tithi is the angle between the Moon and the Sun, and the same ayanamsa shifts both, so the shift cancels and Lahiri and Raman give the same boundaries. A Sankranti is different, because it is fixed to the Sun entering a sidereal sign, and there the two can name different days.
Will the dates be the same for Bengaluru or Lucknow?
Mostly the same, but a festival can move by one day when its tithi ends close to the test moment. Sunrise, twilight and moonrise fall at different clock times in Bengaluru, Lucknow and New Delhi, so the same tithi can pass the test in one city and miss it in another. Every date here is for New Delhi. Open the panchang for your own city and read that day's tithi.
Which calendar should I trust when two disagree?
Trust the one that names its city and its rule, because that is the one you can check. A date printed without a city or a cut-off moment is harder to check, however confident the page looks. If both name a city and a rule and still differ, the difference is in the rule or the method, and your family's own tradition decides which rule you follow.
One rule I keep for every date on this page
I give you the rule before the date, and I leave the clock times to the panchang page.
I will not tell you what to buy, how to fast or which puja to perform. That is between you, your family and your tradition. A Kundli cannot say which rule your household should keep, and where a fast is concerned, your doctor comes first. What I do read is the sky behind the calendar, and what it has already done in your life.
If a festival date matters to you because a wedding, a griha pravesh (house-warming) or a new start hangs on it, the muhurta page shows the day's windows. Your own free Kundli is where any question about what the day means for you has to begin. If you want me to look with you, book a reading and bring the question you are trying to settle. I read the past first — because you should never have to take a prediction on faith.
Sources
- Tithi — Wikipedia contributors
- Karva Chauth — Wikipedia contributors
- Govardhan Puja — Wikipedia contributors
- Bhai Dooj — Wikipedia contributors
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