Karwa Chauth 2026: Date, Moonrise and Puja Muhurat

Karwa Chauth 2026 falls on Thursday 29 October across India. In New York and Toronto it falls on Wednesday 28 October, and that is the line most published listings leave out.

The date, and why it is not the same everywhere

The festival follows the tithi rather than the calendar. Chaturthi of Krishna Paksha in Kartik begins at 1:06 AM on 29 October and ends at 10:09 PM the same day, in Indian time.

Push that window far enough west and it lands on the previous calendar date. DrikPanchang accordingly gives Wednesday 28 October for New York and for Toronto, while India, the United Kingdom and Australia all keep Thursday the 29th. Anyone coordinating a fast with family on the other side of the world is coordinating across two different dates.

When the moon rises

This is the number that actually matters, because the fast ends when the moon is sighted and not at any fixed hour.

Kolkata sees it first at 7:47 PM. Delhi follows at 8:17 PM, Hyderabad at 8:41 PM, Chennai at 8:44 PM, Bengaluru at 8:55 PM, and Mumbai last at 9:00 PM.

That is a spread of 73 minutes inside one country. A moonrise time printed for Delhi in a national paper is wrong by more than an hour by the time it reaches a reader in Mumbai, which is a long time to sit waiting on an empty stomach because a headline said 8:17.

The puja muhurat

The puja window closes before the moon comes up, everywhere on this list. The order is puja first, then the wait, then the fast breaks at moonrise.

In Delhi the muhurat runs 5:38 PM to 6:56 PM. Mumbai gets 6:07 PM to 7:22 PM, Kolkata 5:01 PM to 6:17 PM, Hyderabad 5:46 PM to 7:01 PM, Chennai 5:43 PM to 6:57 PM and Bengaluru 5:54 PM to 7:08 PM. Each runs a little over an hour.

Abroad

London keeps Thursday the 29th, with the moon up at 6:31 PM and a fasting window of 11 hours 42 minutes, the shortest anywhere on this list.

New York and Toronto both move to Wednesday the 28th. New York has moonrise at 7:35 PM after a fast of 12 hours 14 minutes, Toronto at 7:45 PM after 11 hours 57 minutes.

Sydney stays on Thursday and pays for it. The moon does not rise there until 11:14 PM, closing a fasting window of 17 hours 16 minutes. Sydney fasts nearly six hours longer than London does on the same festival.

How long the fast runs in India

DrikPanchang publishes the upavasa window from before sunrise to moonrise. In Delhi that is 6:31 AM to 8:17 PM, and in Mumbai 6:37 AM to 9:00 PM. Kolkata opens earliest at 5:39 AM and closes earliest at 7:47 PM.

The southern cities run longest of the Indian set, because the sun comes up early and the moon still arrives late: Bengaluru sits at 14 hours 43 minutes and Chennai at 14 hours 42 minutes.

Before the day

Henna goes on a day or two ahead rather than on the morning, for the same reason it does at a wedding. The stain keeps darkening by oxidation for up to 72 hours after the paste comes off, so mehndi applied on the 29th would still be orange that evening.

If you are writing something to go with the day, the rule is the one that applies to any anniversary message: name one real thing rather than reaching for a longer sentence.

If you check one number before the 29th, make it the moonrise for your own city rather than the one in the headline.