Why Almanacs Disagree on Festival Timings: 5 Real Cases

Almanacs disagree on festival timings mostly because they apply the same rule to different places, different definitions or different traditions — not because one of them got the astronomy wrong. The Moon and Sun positions behind every Hindu calendar can be computed to within seconds; what changes the answer is the city, the fine print of the rule, and choices such as true or mean Rahu.

Below are five real cases, each computed by our engine, with the rule and the numbers. Where we checked another almanac, the date we read it is given.

The short answer

How exact is the underlying astronomy? Our engine's planet positions differ from the Swiss Ephemeris by at most 0.43″ for the Sun to Saturn, and its tithi end times by at most 0.11 minutes over 1900–2100 — the measured figures are on How accurate is Satmarg Astro?. Disagreements of whole minutes, hours or days come from the choices described here.

1. The city: Diwali's Lakshmi Puja in 13 cities

The rule. Lakshmi Puja is done on the Kartika Amavasya that prevails at pradosh (the first part of the night after sunset), during the fixed Vrishabha (Taurus) lagna. So the muhurat is the overlap of three things: Amavasya, pradosh kaal, and the time Vrishabha is rising.

In 2026 Amavasya runs from 11:28 AM on 8 November to 12:32 PM on 9 November, so Diwali is Sunday 8 November everywhere in India. But sunset and the rising of Vrishabha depend on where you stand:

The same puja starts 86 minutes apart between Guwahati and Mumbai. Every city in India uses one clock (IST), but the sky does not: the Sun sets about four minutes later for every degree you go west, and Vrishabha rises later with it. In Chennai and Bengaluru the muhurat ends with pradosh rather than with Vrishabha, because pradosh is shorter that far south in November.

What page-one results showed. In our competitor research of 26 September 2026, search results for "Diwali 2026 Lakshmi Puja muhurat" showed windows of 5:54–7:50 PM, 6:24–8:24 PM and 6:27–8:27 PM. These are our New Delhi and Mumbai windows to the minute, and the middle one is within a minute of Pune's: one rule, read for three cities. On 10 October 2026 we read Drik Panchang's pages for both cities: New Delhi 5:54 to 7:50 PM (pradosh 5:31 to 8:09 PM), Mumbai 6:27 to 8:27 PM (pradosh 6:02 to 8:34 PM) — the same windows as ours, with Drik's Amavasya one minute earlier at both ends (11:27 AM to 12:31 PM).

So when two sites disagree on the Diwali muhurat, first check which city each one is for. Our Diwali page has a city table, and the Diwali 2026 article goes through 28 cities.

2. The fine print: Holika Dahan 2026 split by Bhadra

The rule (Dharmasindhu and Nirnaya Sindhu, as most north Indian almanacs apply them): Holika is burnt on Phalguna Purnima in pradosh, outside Bhadra (the Vishti karana). When Bhadra covers the whole first evening and night, the fire moves to the next evening — but only if on that next day Purnima lasts at least 3½ prahar (seven-eighths of daylight) after sunrise and Pratipada is longer than Purnima. Otherwise it stays on the first evening.

In 2026:

• Purnima: 5:56 PM on Monday 2 March → 5:07 PM on Tuesday 3 March.
• Bhadra: 5:56 PM on 2 March → 5:28 AM on 3 March — the whole first night.

So everything turned on the 3½-prahar test on 3 March, and that depends on the city's sunrise and sunset:

In New Delhi, Purnima outlasts the 3½ prahar by about 13 minutes, so the fire moves to 3 March. In Mumbai the day starts 12 minutes later and runs longer, the 3½ prahar reach 5:16 PM, and Purnima ends 8 minutes too early: the exception fails and Holika Dahan stays on 2 March, in pradosh, inside Bhadra. Computed city by city, Mumbai, Pune and Ahmedabad kept 2 March; New Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Lucknow, Guwahati, Varanasi and Srinagar kept 3 March.

Drik Panchang's Mumbai page, read on 10 October 2026, gives Monday 2 March, 6:44 to 9:11 PM, with Purnima from 5:55 PM on 2 March to 5:07 PM on 3 March. Our engine reproduces Drik's day and window for all ten cities of its 2026 list (see the accuracy page). Two families in Delhi and Mumbai who lit Holika on different evenings were following the same rule.

3. The model: Rahu–Ketu, true node or mean node

Rahu and Ketu are not bodies; they are the two points where the Moon's orbit crosses the Sun's path. There are two ways to compute them:

• The mean node is a smooth average that moves backwards at a steady rate.
• The true node is the actual crossing point, which wobbles around the mean as the Sun pulls on the Moon's orbit.

Across 161 instants from 1900 to 2100, our engine measured the two up to 1.79° apart. Because the node moves only about 0.05° a day, a difference of a degree or so turns into days at a sign boundary:

That is 10 days between two correct answers. Our true node matches the Swiss Ephemeris's to within 9.52″; our mean node to within 0.23″. Neither almanac is wrong; they answer different questions. We use the true node because it is where the node actually is, and we show the mean-node date beside it on the Rahu in Capricorn page so a reader who sees "5 December" elsewhere knows why. More in Rahu–Ketu transit 2026.

4. The cut-off: Makar Sankranti and the after-sunset rule

The rule. Makar Sankranti is the day the Sun enters sidereal Capricorn. If that happens before sunset, the festival is that day; if after sunset, it moves to the next day, and the punya kaal with it.

This is why "14 or 15 January?" comes back every year. The ingress drifts about six hours later each year and jumps back after a leap year, so it keeps crossing sunset. In 2027 it falls more than three hours after sunset on the 14th, so the date is clearly the 15th; a year when the ingress lands within a few minutes of sunset is where almanacs can genuinely split, because their sankranti moments differ slightly (see point 6). Full details: Makar Sankranti 2027.

5. The tradition: Smarta and Vaishnava Ekadashi

Smarta (householder) almanacs keep Ekadashi on the day it holds at sunrise, leaving Dwadashi for the next morning's parana. Vaishnava calendars add a stricter test: Dashami, the tithi before, must have ended by arunodaya, 96 minutes before sunrise. If Dashami still touches arunodaya, the day is "Dashami-viddha" and they fast the next day.

Rama Ekadashi 2027 at New Delhi shows it plainly:

• Ekadashi: 5:40 AM on Monday 25 October → 3:22 AM on Tuesday 26 October.
• Sunrise on 25 October: 6:27 AM; arunodaya: 4:51 AM.

Ekadashi holds at sunrise on the 25th, so the Smarta date is Monday 25 October. But at arunodaya, 4:51 AM, it was still Dashami, so Vaishnava calendars keep Tuesday 26 October.

Over 2025 and 2026, 6 of the 49 Ekadashis at New Delhi had a different Vaishnava day. Both days are correct for the people who keep them; an almanac that shows only one is choosing a tradition. Our Ekadashi pages give the Smarta date and show the Vaishnava day where it differs. (ISKCON calendars are computed for their own places and add further rules such as Mahadvadashi, which we do not model.)

6. The small stuff: a minute here and there

Some differences are only conventions and rounding:

• Tithi end times. Drik Panchang's Amavasya for Diwali 2026 starts and ends one minute before ours. Almanacs truncate or round to the minute differently, and use slightly different Moon theories; our tithi ends differ from the Swiss Ephemeris by at most 0.11 minutes.
• The sankranti moment. Our Sun ingresses come out about six minutes earlier than Drik's (Makar Sankranti 2026: 3:07 PM for us, 3:13 PM for Drik) — a difference of about 15″ in how the Lahiri ayanamsa is applied. It changes a date only when the ingress falls within minutes of sunset.
• Venus combustion. For muhurat, Shukra asta (Venus too close to the Sun) blocks weddings. We time it by a 10° distance; Drik ends it around 1 February 2026, apparently by visibility, so six February 2026 wedding dates on Drik's list are not on ours. The reasons for every muhurat difference are on our muhurat rules page.

How to read any almanac

When two sources disagree, check these in order:

1. Which place is it for? A time without a city is half an answer.
2. Which window is it? The whole pradosh, the Vrishabha overlap, a choghadiya, or nishita are all called "muhurat" somewhere.
3. Which rule? Bhadra, 3½ prahar, sunrise or arunodaya, before or after sunset.
4. Which model? True or mean Rahu; which ayanamsa.
5. Which tradition? Smarta or Vaishnava; amanta or purnimanta month names.

If those match and the times still differ by more than a couple of minutes, one of the two has made a mistake — and that is rarer than the differences above.

Try it yourself

Open the festival calendar for this year's dates with the rule behind each one, or the panchang for your own city to see tithi end times from your sunrise. Every date in this article is also in our free CSV files on open data, and how closely our numbers match the Swiss Ephemeris and Drik Panchang is on How accurate is Satmarg Astro? and our methodology page.