Karwa Chauth 2026 — Date, Moonrise Time, Puja Muhurat and Vrat Katha

Karwa Chauth 2026 falls on Thursday, October 29. It is the most cherished of the year's fasts for married women — a nirjala vrat kept without food or even water from dawn until the moon rises, for the long life and wellbeing of the husband. Observed on the Chaturthi of the dark fortnight (Krishna Paksha) of the Kartik month, it is a day of sargi and shringar, of the karwa and the sieve, and of the tender moment at night when a woman first sees the moon, then her husband, through the mesh — and breaks her fast from his hand.

Because the vrat ends only after moonrise, the single most-asked question each year is the moonrise time — about 08:41 PM for Delhi in 2026, varying by city. Here is the verified date, the puja muhurat, the moonrise, the beloved Vrat Katha, and the complete way to keep the fast.

Karwa Chauth 2026 — Date and Muhurat

Moonrise shifts by 15–40 minutes across cities — it is earlier in the east and later in the west. Confirm your city's exact moonrise and puja muhurat on the ShubhDivas Panchanga before the vrat.

The Significance of Karwa Chauth

Karwa Chauth is, at heart, a prayer of love. A married woman keeps a waterless fast through the whole day so that her husband may be granted long life, health, and prosperity, and so that their bond may remain unbroken — the blessing of akhand saubhagya. The karwa — the earthen or brass spouted pot from which the festival takes its name — is offered to the Moon and to Karwa Mata, and passed among the women as a token of the vow they share.

Though it is kept above all by the married, unmarried girls who are engaged or who pray for a good husband observe it too. It falls in the same devotional current as the Teej fasts — Hariyali and Kajari Teej — but Karwa Chauth has a tenderness all its own: the day ends not at a temple but at home, in the meeting of a woman's eyes with the moon, and then with the face of the one she has fasted for.

The Fast — From Sargi to Moonrise

Sargi (before dawn). The fast begins with sargi — a pre-dawn meal traditionally sent with love by the mother-in-law (saas) — of fruit, dry fruits, sweets, feni or sevai, and water, eaten before sunrise (before roughly 4–5 AM). It sustains the woman through the long nirjala day. After sargi, no food or water is taken until the fast is broken at night.

The day. The woman keeps the fast dressed in bridal finery — the solah shringar, often red or maroon, with mehndi, bangles, bindi, and sindoor. Married women gather through the day, and in many families the eldest tells or reads the Karwa Chauth Vrat Katha in a circle, each woman with her puja thali and karwa, exchanging the thalis as the story is heard (the baya ritual).

The evening puja. In the Puja muhurat, about 05:46 PM to 07:01 PM, women worship Shiva, Parvati, Ganesha, and Kartikeya, and the Moon, with the karwa filled with water, a diya, roli, rice, and sweets, and hear the katha a final time.

Moonrise and breaking the fast. When the moon rises — about 08:41 PM in Delhi in 2026 — the woman looks at it through a sieve (chalni) or a dupatta, offers arghya (water) to the moon from her karwa, and then, turning the sieve to her husband, looks upon his face through the same mesh. He offers her the first sip of water and the first bite of food with his own hand, and the fast is broken. It is customary for the husband and elders to then give the woman a gift and their blessings.

The Vrat Katha of Karwa Chauth — Queen Veeravati

The most-told katha is the story of Veeravati, the only and beloved sister of seven devoted brothers.

Married into a good family, Veeravati came to her parents' home to keep her first Karwa Chauth. She fasted with full devotion, but as the day wore on she grew faint with hunger and thirst, waiting for the moon. Her seven brothers, unable to bear the sight of their cherished sister suffering, devised a kindness that became a grave mistake: they lit a great fire behind a distant peepal tree and, through a sieve, showed her its glow as if it were the rising moon. Trusting her brothers, Veeravati offered arghya to the false moon and broke her fast.

The moment she ate, word came that her husband had died. Stricken with grief, Veeravati understood that she had broken her vow before the true moon had risen. In her sorrow she wept and refused all comfort, resolving to keep the fast in its full rigour. A goddess (in some tellings, Parvati herself), moved by her devotion, appeared and revealed the trick her brothers had played — and instructed her to keep the Karwa Chauth vrat again, correctly, with complete faith. Veeravati did so, fasting the whole day and breaking it only at the true moonrise. By the power of her renewed devotion, her husband was restored to life. So the katha carries its promise still: that the vrat kept in sincerity, and only after the true moon is seen, protects the life and bond of one's husband.

Karwa Chauth Puja Vidhi — Step by Step

1. Sargi before sunrise, then begin the nirjala fast with the sankalp for your husband's long life.
2. Through the day, keep the fast in solah shringar; gather with other women and hear the Vrat Katha, exchanging puja thalis (the baya).
3. In the evening muhurat, set the puja: a karwa filled with water, a diya, a sieve (chalni), roli, rice, sweets, and an image of Gauri-Ganesha (some make a small Gauri idol of clay/cow dung). Worship Shiva-Parvati, Ganesha, Kartikeya, and the Moon.
4. At moonrise, view the moon through the sieve, offer arghya (water) to it from the karwa, then view your husband's face through the sieve.
5. Your husband gives you the first sip of water and first morsel of food, breaking the fast. Take the blessings of elders.

Moonrise Time — Why It Varies by City

Karwa Chauth's whole day turns on moonrise, and moonrise is not the same everywhere: it is earlier in eastern India and later in the west, differing by up to half an hour or more between cities. The ~08:41 PM figure above is for Delhi; Kolkata sees the moon earlier, Mumbai and the west a little later. Never break the fast on a neighbour's or a broadcast time — check your own city's moonrise on the ShubhDivas Panchanga on the day.