Karva Chauth
The fourth tithi of dark Kartika — a fast from sunrise, broken at moonrise, kept for the husband's long life.
Where it is kept Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh; not traditionally a southern or eastern observance.
When it falls
Computed from the Moon's elongation from the Sun. The civil day is the one carrying the tithi running at moonrise, which is when the fast ends.
Overview
The fast begins before dawn with sargi — food sent by the mother-in-law and eaten before sunrise — and runs without food or water until the moon rises. The moon is then seen through a sieve, the husband is looked at through the same sieve, and he gives the first water.
The karva is the earthen pot the name comes from — a spouted vessel filled with water, exchanged among the women of the neighbourhood during the afternoon puja, when the vrat katha is heard in a circle with the pots passed from hand to hand.
Where it comes from
The observance is regionally specific and comparatively recent in its present form; it belongs to the north-west and does not appear in the older pan-Indian festival literature. Several vrat kathas circulate — the queen Veervati, the story of Karva, and a Mahabharata-attributed telling in which Draupadi is given the fast by Krishna. None is early.
Its national visibility owes a great deal to Hindi cinema from the 1990s, which took a Punjabi and western-UP custom and made it legible everywhere. That is a documented shift in reach, not in the observance itself.
Why it matters
Its distinguishing feature is that the fast ends at moonrise, not at sunset or sunrise — the only major fast in the calendar keyed to that event, which is why the moonrise time for the specific city matters and a published time for another city will be wrong by many minutes.
The neighbourhood circle is the social form of it: the pots exchanged, the katha heard together, the sargi sent between households. It is a collective observance that happens to be kept individually.
How to celebrate
- Eat the sargi before sunriseIt is what the day is meant to run on.
- Use the moonrise time computed for your own cityThe fast ends at moonrise; the time shifts with longitude and latitude, and a printed national time will be wrong.
- Hear the katha with the pots exchanged in the afternoonThe collective puja is the older part of the observance.
- Break the fast with water firstAfter a full day without fluid, this is both the custom and the sensible order.
What to avoid
These are not all the same kind of thing. Some are prohibitions from a named text, some are Indian law, some are practical, and some are a confusion worth not repeating. Each item says which it is.
- Do not attempt a full waterless fast if you are pregnant, unwell, diabetic or on medicationThe tradition itself exempts these cases; partial fasts are accepted.
- Do not break the fast before the moon is actually visible or has risenThe observance is keyed to moonrise, not to a clock time or to nightfall.
- Do not rely on a moonrise time printed for Delhi if you are elsewhereIn Mumbai or Kolkata the difference runs to tens of minutes.
Where this comes from
Everything above is either computed by this site’s own panchang engine, or drawn from the works listed here. Where a custom is modern, commercial or contested, the page says so rather than presenting it as ancient.
- The Karva Chauth vrat kathas — Veervati, Karva, and the Draupadi telling — as recited in the observance; none is early or textually fixed.
- The moonrise timing is computed here from the Moon's position for the chosen city, not taken from a table.
Dates are computed for the place named above and will differ elsewhere. Regional traditions vary; where two reckonings are in use, both are named rather than one being chosen silently.
Other festivals
All festivals, with dates for any year · The calendar on the home page