Karwa Chauth 2026 Moonrise Time: City-wise Chand Timings

Karwa Chauth 2026 falls on Thursday, 29 October 2026, and the moon rises in New Delhi at 8:12 PM by our engine. Your fast runs from sunrise (6:30 AM in Delhi) until you see the Moon, so the time that matters is moonrise in your own city, which can be more than an hour earlier or later than Delhi.

Below is the moonrise time for 28 Indian cities, why the east sees the Moon first, and why you will find Delhi times quoted anywhere from 8:12 to 8:41 PM this year.

Karwa Chauth 2026 at a glance

The month name looks different in north and south Indian calendars, but it is the same night. North India counts the month to the full moon (purnimanta), so this is Kartika Krishna Chaturthi; calendars that count to the new moon (amanta) call it Ashvin Krishna Chaturthi.

The Chaturthi rule: why 29 October

Karwa Chauth is kept on the Krishna Chaturthi that prevails at moonrise, because the vrat ends with arghya to the rising Moon. In 2026 the Chaturthi begins at 1:07 AM on 29 October and ends at 10:10 PM that night. Moonrise in every city on our list falls before 10:10 PM, the latest being Thiruvananthapuram at 9:04 PM, so the whole country keeps the fast on the same day. There is no two-day confusion this year.

This is the same rule used for every Sankashti Chaturthi, which also ends at moonrise. You can see the year's Sankashti nights and their moonrise times on our Sankashti vrat page.

Moonrise time on Karwa Chauth 2026, city by city

Times are IST for 29 October 2026, computed for each city's own coordinates. Sunset is shown so you can see how long the evening wait is.

If your city is not here, the Karwa Chauth festival page lets you pick any place, and our moonrise tool gives tonight's or any night's time. Direct city pages: Delhi, Lucknow, Jaipur, Patna, Mumbai.

Why moonrise is earlier in the east and later in the west and south

The whole of India runs on one clock, IST, but the sky does not. The Moon rises as the Earth turns, and the Earth turns from west to east, so a place further east meets the Moon first. Guwahati sees it at 7:18 PM, Delhi at 8:12 PM, Ahmedabad at 8:47 PM. That is the main reason for the spread in the table, and it is the same reason sunrise is earlier in Kolkata than in Mumbai.

Latitude matters too. Compare Lucknow and Chennai: they sit on almost the same longitude, yet the Moon rises at 8:01 PM in Lucknow and 8:39 PM in Chennai. On this particular night the Moon is in the northern part of the sky, and when that happens it climbs over the horizon earlier the further north you are. On other nights of the year, with the Moon in the southern sky, the south can come out ahead. That is why you cannot carry last year's gap between two cities over to this year.

Put the two effects together and the south-west corner of the country waits longest: Mumbai 8:56 PM, Thiruvananthapuram 9:04 PM, 1 hour 46 minutes after Guwahati.

Why websites quote Delhi anywhere from 8:12 to 8:41 PM

Search for the Karwa Chauth moonrise time in Delhi and you will see a spread of almost half an hour. None of these is necessarily a typo. Each comes from a different method:

• Which point of Delhi. Our New Delhi point gives 8:12 PM and the Delhi city-centre point a little to the north 8:11 PM. Within Delhi NCR this only moves the time by a minute or so, but a table built for a nearby city, or for a rough "North India" point, can drift further.
• Upper edge or centre of the Moon. We time the moment the Moon's upper edge (upper limb) touches the horizon, which is the standard definition of rising. Timing the centre of the disc makes it a little later.
• Refraction. The air bends moonlight over the horizon, so the Moon is visible slightly before it is geometrically up. We apply standard refraction; a calculation that skips it gives a later time.
• Lunar parallax. The Moon is close enough that its position seen from the Earth's surface differs from its position seen from the Earth's centre. We correct for this; skipping or mishandling it shifts the time by several minutes.
• "Visible" times. Some lists deliberately add a margin for when you can actually see the Moon above houses, trees and city haze. That is a practical choice, not an astronomical one, and it explains the later end of the range.
• Old tables. A few pages simply carry an earlier year's numbers forward.

Our number, 8:12 PM, is the astronomical moonrise on a flat horizon. In practice, from a rooftop in a built-up area, expect to see the Moon a few minutes after that. If the sky is hazy or cloudy, many families wait for the Moon to appear or follow the published time; that is a family and community choice, not something a calculation can decide.

Planning the evening

The fast in Delhi runs from 6:30 AM sunrise to 8:12 PM moonrise, and sunset is at 5:38 PM. The katha and puja are traditionally done in the evening before moonrise, and the wait after sunset is a little over two and a half hours in Delhi. In Kolkata the gap from sunset (5:01 PM) to moonrise (7:42 PM) is similar, but everything happens about half an hour earlier on the clock.

If you want a puja time that also avoids Rahu kaal, our panchang for New Delhi shows that day's Rahu kaal and choghadiya; the general panchang does the same for any city. Our guide to Rahu kaal and choghadiya explains how those windows are worked out.

Karwa Chauth opens the festive run of the month. Dhanteras and Diwali follow on 6 and 8 November; see our post on the Diwali 2026 Lakshmi Puja muhurat.

Try it yourself

Open the free Karwa Chauth page and choose your city for the date, Chaturthi times and moonrise, or use the moonrise tool for any place and any night. Both use the same method as our panchang: upper limb, standard refraction and lunar parallax, for your exact location.