Chaitra Navratri begins · Vikram Samvat new year Festival The first of the nine nights of the spring Navratri and the first day of the Vikram Samvat year.
The name
The same day, written in each of the six scripts this app keeps
- English
- Chaitra Navratri begins · Vikram Samvat new year
- हिन्दी
- चैत्र नवरात्रि आरंभ · विक्रम संवत नववर्ष
Only the names actually in use are listed. A blank script is not an omission: the day may simply not be kept there, or be kept under a different festival's name.
UTC+5:30
The date of a festival depends on the place: a tithi that ends at dusk in Chennai can still be running at dusk a thousand kilometres west, which moves the day. Sunrise and sunset here are computed for the place above.
When it falls next
Looking for the calendar this day belongs to
This day does not fall again in the next three years at this place. A few days are tied to the solar month rather than to the civil year, so a year can hold two of them or none.
What the day is
The first of the nine nights of the spring Navratri and the first day of the Vikram Samvat year. The ghatasthapana, the installing of the pot with barley sown in it, is done in the morning and the nine forms of Durga are worshipped a night each; the nine days end at Ram Navami. In Maharashtra the same day is Gudi Padwa and a gudi is raised over the door.
- Deity
- Durga, Brahma
- Kind
- Festival Days of celebration: the house is decorated, a feast is cooked and the temple is visited.
The hour
The rule in words
Chaitra Shukla Pratipada at sunrise, with the ghatasthapana in the first third of the day or in Abhijit muhurtham.
The fast
Many keep the whole nine days without grain, salt or onion, on kuttu and singhare flour, fruit and milk; others keep only the first and the last day.
Where the regions differ
The north counts the Vikram Samvat year from this day (Gujarat counts from the day after Diwali instead). The same tithi is Ugadi in the Deccan and Cheti Chand for the Sindhis.
Fixing a day for it
The muhurtham rules that go with this festival
A temple visit, or the first darshan at a new temple. No weekday is ruled out: Tuesday belongs to Murugan and the Amman, Saturday to Perumal and Sani, so the day usually follows the deity rather than the almanac. Ashtami and Chaturdasi are the two tithis held back for darshan, with the standing exceptions of Sivaratri on Krishna Chaturdasi and Kala Bhairava Ashtami, which are kept on those very days. Rahu kaal, Yamaganda and Gulika kaal are not scored here; the panchangam page prints them for the day you pick, and most families simply wait them out.
Every date here is computed from the Sun and Moon for the place entered, by the rule printed beside it. A printed panchangam can differ by a day where an almanac reads a tithi at a different instant, and a family's own custom always comes first. Where the practice genuinely varies, the text says so rather than choosing for you.