Karwa Chauth 2026 Date, Moonrise and Puja Timing
Thursday, 29 October 2026 — the puja window, the moonrise logic, and what this quiet fast is really about.
Author
Astro Ratan
Published
18 Aug 2026
Updated
18 Aug 2026
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4 min · 793 words
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Timing
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City muhurat
Good for everyone broadly — festivals, general almanac days.
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Key takeaways
- 1Karwa Chauth 2026 falls on Thursday, 29 October — Kartik Krishna Chaturthi.
- 2The puja muhurat for New Delhi is roughly 5:38 PM to 6:56 PM; the fast itself runs from sunrise (about 6:31 AM) to moonrise.
- 3Moonrise in Delhi is near 8:17 PM — earlier in the east of India, later in the west, so always check your own city.
- 4The fast is broken only after the moon is sighted and argha is offered from the karwa, the earthen pot the day is named for.
- 5The day coincides with Sankashti Chaturthi, the monthly Ganesha fast — which is why Ganesha is worshipped in the evening puja.
When is Karwa Chauth in 2026?
Karwa Chauth 2026 falls on Thursday, 29 October — the Chaturthi tithi of Krishna Paksha in Kartik. The puja muhurat for New Delhi is roughly 5:38 PM to 6:56 PM, and moonrise there is near 8:17 PM, when the fast is broken after sighting the moon. Chaturthi prevails from about 1:06 AM to 10:09 PM on the 29th, so the day is unambiguous.
The tithi, and why there is no date dispute this year
Karwa Chauth is observed on Kartik Krishna Chaturthi — the fourth tithi of the waning moon, four days after the full moon. Some festivals wobble between two civil dates when their tithi crosses sunrise awkwardly, but 2026 is clean: Chaturthi begins in the small hours of 29 October and covers the entire day. (A few calendars printed for other time zones show 28 October — that is the same tithi seen from a different longitude, not a disagreement.) If the way tithis map to dates interests you, how a muhurat is chosen explains the five limbs of the panchang gently.
The shape of the day
The day begins before dawn with sargi — the pre-sunrise meal, traditionally sent by a mother-in-law, eaten before first light. From sunrise the fast is nirjala for those who keep it strictly: no food, no water, until the moon. The afternoon gathers toward the puja — for New Delhi the muhurat is roughly 5:38 to 6:56 PM — when women sit together with decorated thalis, hear the vrat katha, and worship Shiva, Parvati and Ganesha. The day coincides with Sankashti Chaturthi, the monthly Ganesha fast, which is why Ganesha belongs in that circle. Then the waiting, and then the moon.
Moonrise: the one timing that is truly local
Of all the timings attached to this festival, moonrise is the one you cannot take from a national table. The moon climbs over the eastern horizon city by city — in 2026, close to 7:45 PM in Kolkata, about 8:17 PM in Delhi, and nearer 8:50 PM in Mumbai, with every town in between on its own minute. The fast ends when the moon is sighted and argha — the offering of water from the karwa, the earthen pot the day is named for — is made to it, followed by the first sip and bite. Check your own city's moonrise on the day; a rough national figure can have you waiting, or breaking early, by half an hour.
The fast is not a bargain with the heavens. It is one day a year set aside to say: this bond is worth pausing for.
What the fast actually marks
Under the rituals, Karwa Chauth is a day about the marriage bond — kept traditionally by married women for a husband's long life, and increasingly kept by couples together, which suits its spirit better than the old one-way framing. The karwa itself, the small pot of water, is later given away as daan. If you strip the festival to its essence it is a yearly act of deliberate attention toward one person — and attention, in any chart, is the thing marriages run on. Where that bond sits in your own horoscope is a different question; marriage timing and the 7th house is where we take it up.
The thali, the sieve and the story
The evening puja has its own small cast of objects, each carrying meaning. The karwa — the earthen pot of water — sits at the centre and is later given away as daan. The thali holds the diya, the sweets and the chalni, the sieve through which the moon is first sighted, and through which the husband is then seen: a lovely bit of symbolism, the world filtered soft before it is looked at. The vrat katha, the story of the queen Veeravati who broke her fast too early and won her husband back through devotion, is heard together, usually in a circle of women who have done this for decades next to daughters-in-law doing it for the first time. The festival is handed down in that circle far more than from any book.
Keeping it kindly
A word of calm, because this fast is often surrounded by pressure. The nirjala form is demanding, and the tradition has never demanded heroics: pregnant women, the unwell, anyone on medication — a partial fast, or none, keeps the day's meaning intact. Many husbands now fast alongside their wives; many couples simply keep the evening puja and the moonrise together. The festival is a vessel for devotion, not a test of it. Astro Ratan can tell you the exact moonrise for your city on WhatsApp, so the evening can be about the two of you rather than the clock.
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