Annaprashan Muhurat 2026: Dates for the First Rice Ceremony

January 2026 (7 dates)

February 2026 (3 dates)

March 2026 (3 dates)

April 2026 (2 dates)

May 2026 (1 date)

June 2026 (1 date)

July 2026 (3 dates)

August 2026 (4 dates)

September 2026 (4 dates)

October 2026 (3 dates)

November 2026 (2 dates)

December 2026 (2 dates)

The rite and the child's age

Annaprashan is the seventh of the sixteen samskaras. Until this day the baby has lived on milk; the ceremony offers a first morsel of cooked food — commonly kheer, rice boiled in milk with a little sugar or jaggery, or plain rice with ghee — after a short worship of the family deity. In Bengal it is known as mukhe bhaat, in Kerala as choroonu, and it is often held at a temple.

The muhurta texts tie the rite to the child’s age as well as to the calendar: the sixth or eighth month after birth for a boy, and the fifth or seventh for a girl, in the widely followed reading. Families therefore look first for the month that suits the child, and then for a date within it that meets the conditions below. This page cannot know the child’s age; it lists the qualifying dates of 2026 so that the family can pick from the right weeks.

Nakshatras for the first meal

The accepted stars are those of the fixed, movable, light and soft groups. Rohini, Uttara Phalguni, Uttarashadha and Uttara Bhadrapada are the fixed ones; Punarvasu, Swati, Shravana, Dhanishtha and Shatabhisha the movable; Ashwini, Pushya and Hasta the light; and Mrigashira, Chitra, Anuradha and Revati the soft. Sixteen in all, they cover a good part of every month.

Pushya, the star of nourishment in the tradition, and Shravana are especially popular for a rite about food. A nakshatra lasts roughly a day and rarely lines up with the civil date, so the table shows for each date the daytime hours when the nakshatra and the tithi conditions are both in force.

Tithis and weekdays

The lunar days used are Dwitiya, Tritiya, Panchami, Saptami, Dashami, Ekadashi and Trayodashi in the bright fortnight, and Dwitiya, Tritiya, Panchami, Saptami and Dashami in the dark one. Left out are the Rikta tithis (Chaturthi, Navami and Chaturdashi), Shashthi, Ashtami, Dwadashi, Purnima, Amavasya and both Pratipadas, and the second half of the dark fortnight, when the Moon — the planet of food and nourishment in this tradition — is losing most of its light.

Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday are the weekdays applied. Sunday, Tuesday and Saturday are avoided, Tuesday and Saturday most widely; the Moon’s own day, Monday, and Jupiter’s day, Thursday, are favourites with many families.

Periods left out

Two periods are excluded from the list. Pitru Paksha, the fortnight of offerings to the ancestors, is not used for a celebration of a child’s first meal, and an intercalary month (adhik maas) is avoided for any rite whose date is chosen.

Kharmas and Chaturmas, which halt weddings and house-warmings, are not applied here, because annaprashan is bound to the child’s age and cannot wait for a season to change; the same is true of the combustion of Jupiter or Venus. Families with a stricter custom can simply skip those weeks when they read the table.

On the day

The ceremony is a daytime one, and the hours shown in the table run only from sunrise to sunset. Within them most families choose the forenoon. The child usually sits on the lap of the father or the maternal uncle, who gives the first morsel with a silver spoon or a ring, and the elders follow in turn.

Many families add a playful custom: a book, a pen, money, jewellery and a little earth are set in front of the child, and the first object picked up is taken, half in jest, as a hint of the child’s inclinations. None of this changes the date; it is part of the celebration rather than of the muhurta.

Reading the dates for your family

The dates are worked out for New Delhi, counting each panchang day from sunrise. Tithis and nakshatras end at exact moments, so the qualifying hours are a little different in other cities, and a date with only a short window in Delhi may have none elsewhere.

A family priest may add checks that depend on the child, such as the Moon’s strength counted from the child’s Moon sign or the rising sign at the hour of the meal, and will naturally keep to the month that suits the child’s age. Treat the table as the calendar half of the choice, and the rest as your family’s.