Pitru Paksha begins Observance The full moon of Bhadrapada opens the fortnight of the ancestors, sixteen days in which shraddha is offered to the departed on the tithi on which each died.

English

Pitru Paksha begins

हिन्दी

पितृ पक्ष आरंभ

मराठी

पितृपक्ष आरंभ

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.

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.

The full moon of Bhadrapada opens the fortnight of the ancestors, sixteen days in which shraddha is offered to the departed on the tithi on which each died. No wedding, housewarming or new purchase is made in it. It ends at the Amavasya, Sarva Pitru Amavasya, on which everyone whose day is not known is remembered together.

Deity

Pitrus, Yama

Kind

Observance Days marked, watched or begun, without a fast or a feast of their own.

From Bhadrapada Purnima to the Amavasya that follows. Each day's shraddha is offered at aparahna, the afternoon, after the pind and the water are made ready.

The one who offers the shraddha eats one meal after it, without onion, garlic or masur dal. Crows, cows and dogs are fed first, and a brahmin or a guest is fed before the family.

The north calls the fortnight Pitru Paksha or Kanagat; Bengal ends it with Mahalaya and the invocation of Durga; the south keeps the same fortnight as Mahalaya paksha and the Amavasya as Mahalaya Amavasai.

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.