The Year, in Order
Every date moves with the panchanga, so the months below are the window, not the day. Message us and we confirm this year's exact date and the muhurat in your timezone.
Makar Sankranti & Pongal
Sankranti is a solar event rather than a lunar one, which is why it holds nearly the same Gregorian date every year while other festivals move.
1.5 – 2 hours at the punyakala · View details →Maha Shivaratri
Maha Shivaratri is observed through the night, in four praharas, each with its own abhishekam.
Full night in four praharas, or a single 2-hour prahara · View details →Vasant Panchami & Saraswati Puja
Vasant Panchami is the other great Aksharabhyasa day besides Vijayadashami, and the one most North and East Indian families use.
1.5 hours · View details →Ugadi, Gudi Padwa & Vishu — New Year Pujas
Ugadi opens the lunar new year in Karnataka, Andhra and Telangana; Maharashtra keeps the same tithi as Gudi Padwa; Kerala's Vishu follows the solar calendar a fortnight later.
1.5 – 2 hours including panchanga shravana · View details →Holi & Holika Dahan
Holika Dahan is performed at the pradosh muhurat on Phalguna Purnima, and unusually it must avoid the Bhadra period — one of the few festivals where a specific window is ruled out rather than ruled in.
1.5 hours at the pradosh muhurat · View details →Ram Navami
Ram Navami marks Rama's birth at madhyahna — midday — which is when the principal puja is performed.
2 – 3 hours; 9 days for the full Ramayana parayana · View details →Hanuman Jayanti
Hanuman Jayanti falls on Chaitra Purnima for most of India, but Karnataka and Tamil Nadu keep different tithis — Karnataka observes Hanuman Jayanti in Margashirsha.
2 hours; longer for a 108-path Chalisa sankalp · View details →Akshaya Tritiya
Akshaya Tritiya is one of the handful of sade teen muhurat days that are auspicious in their entirety — no separate muhurat has to be calculated.
1.5 – 2 hours, any time in the day · View details →Vat Savitri Vrat
Vat Savitri is kept by married women for their husband's long life, taking its form from Savitri's recovery of Satyavan from Yama.
2 hours at the tree · View details →Guru Purnima
Guru Purnima honours Veda Vyasa and, through him, every teacher in the lineage.
1.5 – 2 hours · View details →Shravana Masa — Somvar, Nag Panchami & Raksha Bandhan
Shravana is the month of Shiva, and its Mondays — the Shravan Somvars — carry more weight for Rudrabhishekam than any other day of the year.
1.5 – 3 hours depending on the ritual · View details →Krishna Janmashtami
Krishna was born at midnight, and the Janmashtami puja is performed at nishita kaal accordingly.
2 hours around the midnight muhurat · View details →Pitru Paksha Shraddh & Tarpan
Pitru Paksha is the one fortnight in the year set aside entirely for the ancestors.
2 – 3 hours per day of shraddh · View details →Ganesh Chaturthi & Anant Chaturdashi
Ganesh Chaturthi begins with pranapratishtha — the invocation of Ganesha into the clay murti — and ends ten days later with visarjan on Anant Chaturdashi.
2 hours for pranapratishtha, 1 hour for visarjan · View details →Onam
Onam marks Mahabali's annual return to Kerala, and its household ritual centres on the Thrikkakara Appan — the conical clay form of Vamana placed on the pookalam and worshipped through the ten days to Thiruvonam..
1.5 hours on Thiruvonam · View details →Navratri, Durga Puja & Ayudha Puja
Nine nights, three goddesses: Durga for the first three, Lakshmi for the next three, Saraswati for the last three.
1.5 hours daily, or a single 3-hour Ashtami / Navami booking · View details →Karva Chauth
Karva Chauth is a nirjala fast kept from sunrise to moonrise for the husband's long life.
1.5 hours in the evening · View details →Diwali — Dhanteras to Bhai Dooj
Diwali is not one puja but five days with different deities and different purposes: Dhanteras for Dhanvantari and Kubera, Narak Chaturdashi, Lakshmi Pujan on Amavasya evening, Govardhan Puja and Annakut the next morning, and Bhai Dooj on the fifth.
1.5 – 2 hours per day booked · View details →Chhath Puja
Chhath runs four days — Nahay Khay, Kharna, Sandhya Arghya and Usha Arghya — and its central act is standing in water offering arghya to the setting and then the rising sun.
Four days; the two arghyas are about 2 hours each · View details →Tulsi Vivah, Kartik Purnima & Dev Diwali
Tulsi Vivah marks the end of Chaturmasya and the reopening of the wedding season — Vishnu wakes on Prabodhini Ekadashi and the ceremonial marriage of Tulsi to Shaligrama follows.
2 – 3 hours for Tulsi Vivah · View details →Monthly Tithi Pujas — Purnima, Amavasya, Ekadashi & Pradosham
Not every observance is annual.
1 – 2 hours per observance · View details →