Navratri dates 2026: calendar and daily panchang

In the Hindu calendar a day runs from one sunrise to the next, not from midnight to midnight. A Panchang takes the tithi (lunar day) that is current at sunrise as the tithi for the whole day, so the sunrise time can decide on which date a festival or vrat is kept.

Many muhurats are also measured from sunrise, for example a morning muhurat that falls in the first part of the day. Because the sun rises at different times in different cities, and a little earlier or later through the year, Panchang timings are always worked out from the local sunrise of a particular place.

Rahu Kaal is a period of about an hour and a half that comes every day. In Hindu Panchang practice it is associated with Rahu, and traditionally it is considered an unfavourable time to begin important or auspicious work, such as a puja, a major purchase or a journey. Some families plan around it carefully, while others do not follow it. Work that is already under way is usually not stopped.

To find it, the time between local sunrise and sunset is divided into eight equal parts, and one of those parts, fixed for each weekday, is taken as Rahu Kaal. Since sunrise and sunset change from day to day and from place to place, the clock time of Rahu Kaal changes too.

Moonrise is the time the moon comes up above the eastern horizon at a given place. Several Hindu vrats are completed only after the moon is seen. On Karwa Chauth and Sankashti Chaturthi, for example, the fast is broken after offering arghya to the moon, so on those days the local moonrise is the timing people watch most closely.

On average the moon rises about 50 minutes later each day, and the exact time also depends on where you are. That is why moonrise has to be checked for the specific date and city rather than carried over from another day or place.