Karwa Chauth puja vidhi 2026: the steps from the texts, and the moonrise time for your city

The short answer: Karwa Chauth 2026 is on Thursday, 29 October. The fast runs from before sunrise until the moon rises. On that evening the moon rises at 8:13 pm in Delhi, 8:57 pm in Mumbai and 7:43 pm in Kolkata. The table further down has ten cities. For any other place, open our free Aaj Ka Panchang tool, enter your city and 29 October 2026, and read the line marked Moonrise.

The puja itself is simple. The vrat texts give six steps: a vow in the morning, a drawn image of the Moon with Shiva, Gauri and Kartikeya, sixteen simple offerings, ten filled karvas, water offered to the moon after it rises, and then the story. Each step is below, with the book it comes from.

Why the date is 29 October

Karwa Chauth is the chaturthi (fourth lunar day) of the waning fortnight in the month after Sharad Purnima. Its date is not set by sunrise, as most festivals are. It is set by moonrise. The Dharma Sindhu, the standard handbook for fixing festival dates, says so in one line:

आश्विनकृष्णचतुर्थी करकचतुर्थी । सा चन्द्रोदयव्यापिनी ग्राह्या ।

"The krishna chaturthi of Ashvina is Karaka Chaturthi. Take the one that is running at moonrise." — Dharma Sindhu, Ashvina-masa section, Karaka-chaturthi (Chowkhamba Hindi edition)

The Nirnaya Sindhu gives the same rule under Kartika: "कार्त्तिककृष्णचतुर्थी करकचतुर्थी । सा चन्द्रोदयव्यापिनी ग्राह्या" (Nirnaya Sindhu, Pariccheda 2, Kartika section). The month names differ only because North India counts each month from full moon to full moon, while Gujarat, Maharashtra and the South count from new moon to new moon. It is the same night either way.

In 2026 the chaturthi begins at 1:07 am on 29 October and ends at 10:10 pm the same night (Indian Standard Time). The moon rises before 10:10 pm in every city in the table below. So the chaturthi is running at moonrise on the 29th, and that is the date. These times come from the same panchang engine that runs our Karva Chauth 2026 festival page.

Moonrise on Karwa Chauth, 29 October 2026

Times are in IST, worked out by our engine for each city's coordinates.

Your own city: use the Aaj Ka Panchang tool. Pick your city, set the date to 29 October 2026, and look under Sun and Moon for Moonrise. If you live outside India, do this too. Moonrise changes with latitude and longitude, so a time copied from another city can be off by an hour.

A practical note: this is the calculated moment the moon reaches the horizon. Buildings, hills or haze can hide it for a while after that. If you cannot see it at the listed time, wait a few minutes. The texts ask you to offer water after moonrise, not at a fixed clock time.

The puja vidhi, step by step

The fullest household account in our library is in the Vratotsav Chandrika, a Hindi vrat handbook. It says its Karva-chaturthi chapter follows the Vamana Purana. The Narada Purana has a shorter version. Where they differ, we say so.

1. Morning: bath and the vow (sankalpa)

After the morning bath and achamana (sipping water three times to purify), the woman says the sankalpa, a short spoken vow that states what she is doing and why. The Vratotsav Chandrika gives its closing words:

मम सौभाग्य-पुत्र-पौत्रादि सुस्थिर श्री प्राप्तये करवाचतुर्थी-व्रतं करिष्ये ।

"For good fortune in marriage, for children and grandchildren, and for lasting prosperity, I will keep the Karva-chaturthi vrat." — Vratotsav Chandrika, Karva-chaturthi vrat

From here the fast runs until moonrise.

2. Set up the image: the Moon, with Shiva, Kartikeya and Gauri below

The text says to draw an image of the Moon, and below it figures of Shiva, Shanmukha (six-faced Kartikeya, Shiva's son) and Gauri (Parvati). That drawing is the centre of the puja. The Narada Purana puts Ganesha first: the woman, bathed and dressed in her ornaments, worships Ganesha. The Vratotsav Chandrika also lists Ganesha among the deities worshipped. So keep a Ganesha image or a betel nut wrapped in sacred thread beside the drawing.

3. The sixteen offerings, with the Gauri mantra

The deities are worshipped with shodashopachara, the standard sixteen offerings. These include water to wash the feet, water to sip, a bath, cloth, sandal paste, flowers, incense, a lamp and food. The mantra the text gives for this worship is addressed to Gauri:

नमः शिवायै शर्वाण्यै सौभाग्यं सन्ततिं शुभाम् । प्रयच्छ भक्तियुक्तानां नारीणां हरिवल्लभे ॥

"Salutation to Shivaa, consort of Sharva. Grant good fortune and fine children to the women who worship you with devotion." — Vratotsav Chandrika, Karva-chaturthi vrat

4. The ten karvas

This is the step that gives the festival its name. A karva is a small spouted pot of clay or copper. The Vratotsav Chandrika says to fill ten karvas with pua (sweet fried cakes) and give them to a Brahmin. The Narada Purana says to place ten karvas filled with sweets in front of Ganesha. The number in both texts is ten.

5. Food offering

The text then says to offer naivedya, cooked food set before the deity, before the moon comes up.

6. After moonrise: water to the moon, then the story

चन्द्रोदय हो जानेपर चन्द्रमाको अर्घ देकर कथा श्रवण करे ।

"When the moon has risen, offer arghya to the Moon and listen to the katha." — Vratotsav Chandrika, Karva-chaturthi vrat

Arghya is water poured out as an offering, facing the moon. The fast ends after it. The texts do not say what to eat first. That part is family custom.

The katha in short: Veeravati and the false moon

The story the Vratotsav Chandrika tells is set inside a conversation. Draupadi, worried while Arjuna is away, asks Krishna for a way to remove obstacles. Krishna tells her the answer Shiva once gave Parvati: the Karva-chaturthi vrat.

In Indraprastha a Brahmin named Vedasharma had seven sons and one daughter, Veeravati. After her marriage she kept the fast, but she grew faint with hunger before evening. Her brothers could not bear it. One of them climbed a high peak and lit a torch, and Veeravati took the glow for the moon:

वीरावतीने चन्द्रोदय जानकर और अर्घ प्रदान करके व्रतको समाप्त कर दिया ।

"Veeravati, thinking the moon had risen, gave arghya and ended the vrat." — Vratotsav Chandrika

Her husband died at once. She kept a fast for a whole year, and when Karva Chauth came round again Indrani came down from heaven. Told by Indrani that the cause was breaking the fast without giving arghya to the real moon, she kept the vrat properly and her husband was restored to life. The lesson the story carries is the rule in step 6: wait for the actual moon.

The same book adds a frank note. It says the vrat is kept in most regions, especially in central India, the United Provinces and Rajputana, and that over time "some invented parts" crept into the popular practice and story, because it is passed down mostly through women's family tradition rather than from the shastra. We quote that note here because it helps explain why customs differ so much from family to family.

Sargi, the sieve and the thali

Three of the best-known parts of Karwa Chauth are sargi (the pre-dawn meal from the mother-in-law), looking at the moon through a sieve, and the thali passed around in a circle while the story is sung. None of them appears in the texts we checked (Vratotsav Chandrika, Narada Purana, Dharma Sindhu, Nirnaya Sindhu). They are living family and regional customs, and that is reason enough to keep them. Just know that the shastric core is the six steps above.

Samagri, based on the steps above

There is no separate samagri list in these texts. This is what the six steps need:

• A karva (clay or copper pot with a spout). The text specifies ten, filled with pua or sweets.
• A drawing or picture of the Moon with Shiva, Gauri and Kartikeya, plus a Ganesha image or a betel nut wrapped in kalava.
• For the offerings: water, roli (red kumkum powder), rice, flowers, sandal paste, incense, a ghee lamp, a piece of cloth or kalava, and sweets for naivedya.
• A small pot of water for the arghya to the moon.
• The katha, read from a book or told by an elder.

What the texts say the vrat is for

The vow in step 1 names three things: good fortune in marriage (saubhagya), children and grandchildren, and lasting prosperity. The Vratotsav Chandrika's story says the vrat removes obstacles, and it ends by saying women who want children, a long and happy married life and plenty should keep it. The Narada Purana says only women are entitled to it. We report these as what the texts say. We do not promise any result.

Sources

• Vratotsav Chandrika: Karva-chaturthi vrat chapter (sankalpa, the Moon-Shiva-Shanmukha-Gauri image, the Gauri mantra, ten karvas, arghya at moonrise, the Veeravati katha, and the author's note on regional practice). The chapter says it follows the Vamana Purana.
• Narada Purana (Gita Press abridged edition): the chaturthi-vrata section, Karka-chaturthi (Karva Chauth): only women are entitled; worship Ganesha; ten karvas filled with sweets.
• Dharma Sindhu (Chowkhamba Hindi edition): Ashvina-masa section, Karaka-chaturthi: take the chaturthi running at moonrise.
• Nirnaya Sindhu (Jwalaprasad Mishra Hindi edition): Pariccheda 2, Kartika section, Karaka-chaturthi: the same moonrise rule.
• Date and moonrise times: computed by Kundlit's panchang engine (Swiss Ephemeris, Lahiri ayanamsha) for each city's coordinates.

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Reading in Hindi? Our festival page is also in Hindi: करवा चौथ 2026. For every vrat and festival of the year with dates for your city, see the festival calendar.