Karva Chauth 2027: Fast Date, Moonrise and Vrat Katha

The meaning of Karva Chauth and its kathas

The name joins karva, the small earthen pot with a spout that sits at the centre of the puja, and chauth, “the fourth”, for the fourth lunar day of the waning moon. On it married women fast from sunrise until moonrise for the long life and wellbeing of their husbands. Many engaged and unmarried women now keep it too, and some husbands fast alongside their wives. The goddess honoured is Gauri, known in Rajasthan as Chauth Mata, together with Ganesha, the lord of every Chaturthi.

Several kathas are read in the evening circle. The best known is that of Veeravati, the only sister of seven brothers who could not bear to see her faint with hunger. They lit a lamp behind a tree and held up a sieve so that it glowed like the rising moon; she broke her fast too early, misfortune fell on her husband, and the tale goes on to tell how her devotion over the following year restored him. Another tells of a wife named Karva who bound the crocodile that had seized her husband and stood before Yama until his life was spared. Tradition also holds that Draupadi kept this vrat on Krishna’s advice, and the story of Savitri and Satyavan is often told alongside.

The same tithi is Sankashti Chaturthi, the monthly Ganesha fast that also ends at moonrise. Four days later, mothers in many of the same households keep Ahoi Ashtami for their children, breaking that fast when the stars appear.

How the Karva Chauth date is calculated

Karva Chauth is Kartika Krishna Chaturthi in the purnimanta calendar of North India, where the dark fortnight takes the name of the month about to begin. In the amanta calendar of Gujarat, Maharashtra and the South the same day is Ashvin Krishna Chaturthi; the moon and the fast are identical, only the label changes. It comes four tithis after Sharad Purnima, roughly a week and a half before Diwali, and usually falls in October, now and then slipping into early November.

Because the fast ends with the moon, the deciding moment is moonrise rather than sunrise. The rule is chandrodaya-vyapini: Karva Chauth is kept on the day when Chaturthi is in force as the moon comes up. Chaturthi lasts roughly a day and seldom begins at sunrise, so it is usually current at the moonrise of one evening and not the next. When it begins or ends close to moonrise, or touches neither moonrise, panchang makers following different readings of the texts can settle on different days, which is the usual reason a “Karva Chauth kab hai” search throws up two answers. This page applies the moonrise rule for New Delhi.

Moonrise also depends on place. India keeps a single clock time, so eastern cities such as Kolkata see the moon far earlier by the clock than Mumbai in the west, with the gap often reaching an hour or more. The tithi is the same for everyone, but the moment of breaking the fast is local.

Karva Chauth puja vidhi, from sargi to arghya

The day starts before dawn with sargi, a meal sent by the mother-in-law in the Punjabi custom: fruit, dry fruit, sweets, sevaiyan and something savoury, eaten before sunrise, after which the sankalp, the resolve to keep the fast, is taken. Through the day the vrat is traditionally nirjala, without food or water. In the afternoon women apply mehendi, dress in bridal red or their finest clothes and jewellery, and prepare the puja thali with a lamp, roli, rice, sweets, a sieve and the water-filled karva.

In the evening women gather, often at a temple or a neighbour’s home, before an image of Gauri or Chauth Mata with Ganesha. An older woman or a priest reads the katha, and the thalis pass from hand to hand around the circle in seven rounds, or feris, to the songs of the day. Each woman then sets aside a baya, a tray of sweets, dry fruit, clothes or a small gift, and offers it to her mother-in-law while touching her feet.

When the moon rises, the family moves to the rooftop or the courtyard. The moon is viewed through the sieve with the lamp burning on the thali, arghya is offered from the karva with a prayer, and then, still through the sieve, the wife looks at her husband. He gives her the first sip of water and the first bite of food, and the family sits down to dinner together.

Traditional dos and don’ts for the vrat

Customs differ by community, but some are widely followed. Sargi is finished before sunrise, the fast is not broken until the moon is seen, and the baya reaches the mother-in-law before the evening is over. Many women wear red, orange or other bright colours and, traditionally, avoid black and white. In many Punjabi homes women also avoid sewing, knitting or spinning on the day, a rule the feri songs themselves recall.

Tradition has always allowed a gentler form of the vrat for those who cannot go without water: the elderly, the unwell and expectant mothers commonly take water, milk or fruit instead. The spirit of the day is mutual care rather than endurance, and many couples now keep it together.

Karva Chauth across regions and the diaspora

The fast belongs above all to Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir. Punjabi homes give it its most familiar shape, with the sargi, the baya and the singing circle of feris. In Rajasthan the goddess of the day is Chauth Mata, whose temple at Barwara in Sawai Madhopur district is a major place of pilgrimage.

Gujarat, Maharashtra and most of the South did not traditionally keep Karva Chauth; there the same tithi is known as Sankashti Chaturthi, though the fast has since spread widely through cities, television and film. Across the diaspora in the UK, North America, Australia and the Gulf, women meet in community halls and homes, and the question that matters most as evening falls is the local moonrise.

Astrology of the Karva Chauth moon

On Krishna Chaturthi the Moon has fallen 132° to 144° behind the Sun, which is why it rises a couple of hours after sunset rather than at dusk. Muhurta Chintamani names Ganesha as the lord of Chaturthi, and fittingly the same night is his monthly Sankashti Chaturthi. Chaturthi belongs to the Rikta, or “empty”, group of tithis, which muhurta texts avoid for starting new ventures, so the day is kept for the vrat and is not chosen for purchases or launches. Vishti karana (Bhadra) does not fall on Krishna Chaturthi.

In most years the Sun is in sidereal Libra (Tula), its sign of debilitation; when the festival falls in early October, roughly one year in three, it is still in late Virgo (Kanya). The Chaturthi Moon most often stands in Taurus (Vrishabha), its sign of exaltation, in Rohini or Mrigashira nakshatra; Mrigashira’s presiding deity is Soma, the Moon itself. In a Libra year, then, the fast is broken by a Moon in its strongest dignity on a day when the Sun is at its weakest. Libra and Taurus are both ruled by Venus (Shukra), the significator of marriage in Vedic astrology, a pairing that suits a festival devoted to married life.