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Purnima Dates & Timings 2026

Sacred days of full moon

13 Sacred Days
Precise Timings
New Delhi
Next:Raksha Bandhan (Shravana Purnima) on August 28 in New Delhi
2025
Year
2026
2027
Next:Raksha Bandhan (Shravana Purnima) on August 28 in New Delhi

2026 Purnima Calendar

Timings calculated for New Delhi

Paush Purnima

Sat, Jan 3, 2026
🌕
Tithi Timings
Start:Jan 02, 2026, 6:54 PM
End:Jan 03, 2026, 3:33 PM

Devotees take holy river baths to begin Magh Snan; believed to wash away sins and invite blessings for health and prosperity.

Magha Purnima

Sun, Feb 1, 2026
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Tithi Timings
Start:Feb 01, 2026, 5:53 AM
End:Feb 02, 2026, 3:39 AM

Concluding bath of Magh Mela; charity on this day brings great spiritual merit.

Holi (Phalguna Purnima)

Tue, Mar 3, 2026
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Tithi Timings
Start:Mar 02, 2026, 5:56 PM
End:Mar 03, 2026, 5:08 PM

Celebrated as Holi — the triumph of devotion; a day of joy, letting go, and spiritual renewal.

Chaitra Purnima

Thu, Apr 2, 2026
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Tithi Timings
Start:Apr 01, 2026, 7:07 AM
End:Apr 02, 2026, 7:42 AM

Hanuman Jayanti; devotees perform Satyanarayan Puja for family harmony and well-being.

Buddha Purnima

Fri, May 1, 2026
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Tithi Timings
Start:Apr 30, 2026, 9:13 PM
End:May 01, 2026, 10:53 PM

Birth, enlightenment, and nirvana of Lord Buddha; prayer, meditation, and compassion.

Purnima

Sun, May 31, 2026
🌕
Tithi Timings
Start:May 30, 2026, 11:59 AM
End:May 31, 2026, 2:15 PM

Full Moon (Purnima) — auspicious for vrata, meditation, and charity.

Jyeshtha Purnima

Mon, Jun 29, 2026
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Tithi Timings
Start:Jun 29, 2026, 3:07 AM
End:Jun 30, 2026, 5:27 AM

Vat Savitri Vrat observed for long life and protection of the husband; devotion of Savitri is remembered.

Guru Purnima

Wed, Jul 29, 2026
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Tithi Timings
Start:Jul 28, 2026, 6:20 PM
End:Jul 29, 2026, 8:06 PM

Honoring spiritual Gurus and teachers; gratitude and recommitment to wisdom and self-realization.

Raksha Bandhan (Shravana Purnima)

Fri, Aug 28, 2026
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Tithi Timings
Start:Aug 27, 2026, 9:10 AM
End:Aug 28, 2026, 9:49 AM

Sisters tie Rakhi for protection; Brahmins perform Upakarma to renew the sacred thread.

Bhadrapada Purnima

Sat, Sep 26, 2026
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Tithi Timings
Start:Sep 25, 2026, 11:07 PM
End:Sep 26, 2026, 10:19 PM

Satyanarayan Puja and charity; prosperity; preparation for Anant Chaturdashi next day.

Sharad Purnima (Kojagari Purnima)

Mon, Oct 26, 2026
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Tithi Timings
Start:Oct 25, 2026, 11:57 AM
End:Oct 26, 2026, 9:42 AM

Worship Goddess Lakshmi; full-moon vigil believed to shower health and abundance.

Kartika Purnima

Tue, Nov 24, 2026
🌕
Tithi Timings
Start:Nov 23, 2026, 11:43 PM
End:Nov 24, 2026, 8:24 PM

Dev Deepawali — lamps and sacred baths; believed to liberate from sins.

Margashirsha Purnima

Wed, Dec 23, 2026
🌕
Tithi Timings
Start:Dec 23, 2026, 10:48 AM
End:Dec 24, 2026, 6:58 AM

Dedicated to Lord Dattatreya and Goddess Annapurna; prayers for wisdom and prosperity in food.

About Purnima

Purnima, the Full Moon day, is considered highly auspicious for vrata, meditation, and charity. This page lists full moon dates and local timings for your selected city and year.

Spiritual Significance

Full Moon symbolizes completeness, clarity, and spiritual illumination.

Observances

Common practices include fasting, meditation, mantra japa, and charity.

Timing Source

All timings are computed per city timezone via our accurate lunar calculations.

"Purnima is the day of divine grace"

The ancient scriptures state that observing Purnima with devotion grants the same merit as performing thousands of sacrifices and pilgrimages.

Traditions and Observance

Purnima is traditionally observed with purity, charity, and contemplation. Many devotees fast, read sacred texts, and perform Satyanarayan puja or offer prayers to the Moon. Below are concise guidelines you can follow as per family tradition.

Fasting & Clean Living
  • Observe fast or take a simple sattvic diet; break fast after moonrise where applicable
  • Maintain purity of speech and thought; avoid anger and harshness
  • Offer water, milk, or white sweets to the Moon in the evening
Spiritual Practices
  • Chant mantras (e.g., Om Namo Narayanaya, Om Namah Shivaya, Chandra mantra)
  • Read or listen to Satyanarayan Katha where customary
  • Do charity of white food, rice, or clothing as feasible
Family & Community
  • Pray for family well-being and emotional harmony
  • Respect local calendars for moonrise timing and observance details
  • Consult elders or priests for specific rites when needed

Important Reminder

Always consult with your spiritual guide or family traditions for specific observance practices. The timings may vary based on your location and local customs. Listen to your body and practice with devotion rather than mere ritual.

Purnima FAQs — Full Moon Dates, Timing & Vrat

What is Purnima?

Purnima is the full moon day, when the Moon stands opposite the Sun and shines whole. In the Hindu calendar it closes the bright fortnight and is held to be a high point for prayer, fasting, charity and moon worship. Several of the year's largest observances — Guru Purnima, Sharad Purnima, Kartik Purnima — fall on full-moon days.

How many Purnimas are there in 2026?

Thirteen, not the usual twelve. 2026 carries an adhika (extra) lunar month, so one full moon repeats and an Adhika Purnima is added that most calendars pass over. The list above shows all thirteen with their lunar-month names.

What is the difference between Guru, Sharad and Kartik Purnima?

Each full moon carries the flavour of its lunar month. Guru Purnima (Ashadha, July) honours teachers and the guru; Sharad Purnima (Ashwin, October) is the harvest full moon of kheer and moonlit vigils; Kartik Purnima (November) brings Dev Deepawali and river bathing. The list above names each Purnima so you can find the one you are after.

What is Satyanarayan Puja and when is it done?

The Satyanarayan Puja worships Vishnu in his Satyanarayan form and is done most often on Purnima, though families also keep it on other auspicious days and life events. The full-moon evening, with its Katha and prasad of sheera, is the traditional time. Many households repeat it every Purnima as a standing vow.

Do Purnima and moonrise timings change by city?

Yes. The tithi start and end above are computed in your city's local time, and moonrise — which matters for Sharad Purnima and Chandra worship — shifts with your longitude and latitude. A full moon that rises at one minute in Delhi rises at another in Chennai. Select your city so the times match where you actually are.

How should you observe a Purnima vrat?

A common form is a day-long fast broken after sighting the moon, kept with a sattvic diet, mantra japa, and an evening offering of water or white sweets to the Moon. Where it is the custom, the Satyanarayan Katha is read. Keep to what your family follows; this is offered for understanding, not as prescription.

Is Purnima a good day to start new work?

Purnima is broadly counted among the auspicious tithis and is favoured for worship, charity, housewarming and auspicious beginnings. That said, a full moon is a high-energy day traditionally linked to restlessness, so many prefer it for devotion over hard bargaining or travel. For a specific muhurat, check that day's panchang.

2026 delivers 13 full moons to New Delhi. Most peak in late evening or early night; check each month's timing to catch the ritual window right.

Times calculated for New Delhi. Observances may vary by family tradition and regional custom.

Full moons through the year

January 2026: In January 2026, Purnima falls on Saturday, 3 January (Paush Purnima).

February 2026: In February 2026, Purnima falls on Sunday, 1 February (Magha Purnima).

March 2026: In March 2026, Purnima falls on Tuesday, 3 March (Holi).

April 2026: In April 2026, Purnima falls on Thursday, 2 April (Chaitra Purnima).

May 2026: In May 2026, Purnima falls on Friday, 1 May (Buddha Purnima) and Sunday, 31 May.

June 2026: In June 2026, Purnima falls on Monday, 29 June (Jyeshtha Purnima).

July 2026: In July 2026, Purnima falls on Wednesday, 29 July (Guru Purnima).

August 2026: In August 2026, Purnima falls on Friday, 28 August (Raksha Bandhan).

September 2026: In September 2026, Purnima falls on Saturday, 26 September (Bhadrapada Purnima).

October 2026: In October 2026, Purnima falls on Monday, 26 October (Sharad Purnima).

November 2026: In November 2026, Purnima falls on Tuesday, 24 November (Kartika Purnima).

December 2026: In December 2026, Purnima falls on Wednesday, 23 December (Margashirsha Purnima).

Why Do Fasting, Meditation and Charity All Gather on the Full Moon?

Purnima is the fifteenth tithi of the bright fortnight — the moment the moon stands exactly opposite the sun, 180 degrees apart, its disc fully lit. The name itself says everything: purna, complete. Nothing is waxing anymore, and nothing has begun to wane. For a tradition that reads the sky as a moral and psychological calendar, this instant of fullness became the natural marker for practices of completion — finishing a vow, settling a debt of gratitude, giving away what has accumulated.

The link between the moon and the mind runs deep in the classical texts. The Purusha Sukta of the Rigveda declares that the moon was born of the cosmic being's mind — chandrama manaso jatah — and Ayurvedic and yogic literature carried the idea forward: as the moon swells, so do the tides, the sap in plants, and the restlessness of human thought. A full moon, in this reading, is the mind at maximum amplitude. That is precisely why contemplative practices cluster here rather than on quieter days. Fasting lightens the body when the mind is most stirred; meditation harnesses the amplified awareness instead of letting it scatter; japa done on Purnima is traditionally held to carry multiplied fruit.

Charity belongs to the same logic of fullness. A vessel that is full must overflow or stagnate — so the day of completeness became the day of giving. Dana on Purnima, especially of food, of white items associated with the moon (rice, milk, sugar), and of clothing, appears throughout the Dharmashastra literature as particularly meritorious.

You will hear the day called by many names across the country. In Punjab and much of the North it is puranmashi; in Gujarat and Rajasthan, poonam; in the South, pournami; village almanacs in the Hindi belt often simply say punni. Different names, same tithi.

A lunar year ordinarily holds 12 Purnimas. But twelve lunar months run about 11 days shorter than the solar year, so the calendar periodically inserts an extra month — the adhika masa — to keep festivals anchored to their seasons. In such a year there are 13 full moons, and the extra one, falling in the intercalated month, carries its own distinct observances. The dates table on this page always reflects this: when you count one Purnima more than usual, that is the calendar breathing, not an error.

How Did the Satyanarayan Katha Become the Voice of Purnima Evenings?

Ask a North Indian household what happens on Purnima and the most common answer is not an elaborate temple rite — it is the Satyanarayan katha, read aloud at home in the evening, followed by prasad. How did one story-recitation come to own the full-moon day so completely?

The katha is traditionally placed in the Reva Khanda of the Skanda Purana, framed as a dialogue in which the sage Narada asks Vishnu for a practice that ordinary householders can perform. The answer is deliberately democratic: a vrat requiring no great expense, no rare materials, no monopoly of any class. The five chapters of the katha drive the point home through their characters — a poor brahmin, a woodcutter, a merchant, a king — each of whom vows the puja, and each of whom suffers not for lacking wealth or status but for forgetting or postponing the vow. The moral engine of the story is shraddha and completion: what you promise, finish. That structure — vow, lapse, consequence, remembrance, fulfilment — is the classic vrat-katha logic, and Satyanarayan is its most polished example.

Purnima suits it perfectly. Satya-narayan is Vishnu as truth itself, and the full moon — whole, undiminished — is the month's natural emblem of that completeness. The puja is traditionally performed in the evening, arranged so that it concludes around moonrise; many families take the sankalpa in the late afternoon and let the katha run through dusk. The prasad seals the observance: panchamrit, fruit, and above all the sheera — roasted semolina with ghee, sugar and banana — whose distribution to everyone present, including neighbours who never sat through the katha, is considered part of the vrat itself. In the katha's own stories, refusing Satyanarayan prasad is precisely the mistake that invites trouble; sharing it is the completion.

One clarification helps first-time observers. Satyanarayan puja is the general-purpose Purnima observance, but several full moons of the year carry an older, larger festival identity of their own — Guru Purnima honours the teacher, Sharad Purnima celebrates the moon's own nectar-bearing light, Kartik Purnima closes the most sacred bathing month. On those days the named festival usually takes precedence, with the Satyanarayan puja performed alongside it or moved to a nearby Purnima. Each of these named Purnimas has its own dedicated page on this site, covering the traditions specific to it; this hub covers what every full moon shares.

What Does a Purnima Fast Actually Look Like — and Why Does Moonrise, Not Midnight, Complete It?

The Purnima vrat comes in gradations rather than one fixed rule. The most widely followed form runs from sunrise to moonrise: a sankalpa taken in the morning after bathing, abstention from grains through the day, and the fast opened after sighting the risen full moon and offering it water. Many observers keep it as phalahar — fruit, milk, and permitted non-grain foods — while stricter practitioners take only water. A fully waterless Purnima fast exists in some family lineages but is uncommon; the tithi is associated with the moon's cooling, nourishing quality, and the tradition itself does not demand severity here the way some Ekadashi lineages do.

The evening is the heart of the observance. When the full moon clears the horizon, the observer offers arghya — water poured from a vessel toward the moon, often mixed with milk, sometimes with white flowers or unbroken rice. The gesture is old; Vedic and Puranic literature both identify the visible moon with Soma, and returning water to the great keeper of waters closes a circle. Some households also set kheer out in the moonlight — a practice most elaborated on Sharad Purnima, but echoed on ordinary full moons too.

Why moonrise rather than midnight? Because the object of worship is the visible moon. A Purnima fast is not clock-driven the way a midnight Janmashtami vigil is; it is darshan-driven. The vrat completes when the full moon is actually seen and honoured, which is why panchang listings for Purnima give the moonrise time such prominence — it is the operative moment, after which the fast may be opened. Mercifully, on the full-moon evening the moon rises close to sunset, so the wait is short compared with fourth-day or Karva Chauth moons that keep observers up late. If clouds hide the disc, tradition permits offering arghya at the calculated moonrise time, facing the moon's direction — the panchang stands in for the sky.

Households often pair the fast with the Satyanarayan katha described above, or with worship of Vishnu and Lakshmi generally, since the culmination of the bright fortnight is considered their hour. Others keep a simplified version — no fast at all, only the evening arghya and a lamp.

All of this describes the traditional shape of the observance, shared for understanding rather than prescription. Fasting norms vary by family lineage and by health; the sensible course is to follow your own tradition's guidance and your body's limits, easing the rules — as the tradition itself explicitly allows — whenever health requires it.

Why Is Each Month Named After Its Purnima — and Can the 'Wrong-Looking' Day Still Be Right?

Look at the Hindu month names and you are really looking at a map of full moons. Chaitra is the month whose full moon falls near the star Chitra; Vaishakha near Vishakha; Kartik near the Krittika cluster, the Pleiades; Margashirsha near Mrigashira; Magha near Magha; Phalguna near the Phalguni stars. The naming rule is ancient and elegant: whichever nakshatra hosts or neighbours the full moon lends the month its name. The full moon is each month's signature, written in a specific region of the sky, drifting nakshatra by nakshatra as the seasons turn.

This is also why North India's reckoning is called Purnimanta — 'ending at the full moon.' In that system each month closes on Purnima, so the full moon is literally the month's final word, its summation. The Amanta reckoning followed in most of western and southern India ends months at the new moon instead, but — a detail that surprises many — both systems name the months identically, because both take the name from the same full moon. The two calendars disagree about where a month's boundary lies, never about which Purnima belongs to which name. That is why Purnima dates and their month names match across the whole country even where new-moon-based month boundaries do not.

Most timing questions on this page come down to one fact: a tithi is an astronomical event, not a civil day. Purnima begins at the instant the moon reaches 180 degrees from the sun and ends once it moves past; that span rarely fits the midnight-to-midnight frame. The tithi may begin mid-morning on one civil date and end mid-morning on the next. Which day, then, is 'the' Purnima? For moon-directed observance the answer is the evening on which the full moon rises while the tithi still prevails — a Purnima that began at 10 in the morning fully governs that same evening's moonrise, arghya, and katha. For sunrise-anchored purposes such as the monthly snan-dana or shraddha, the day whose sunrise falls within the tithi may be preferred instead, which is why some listings occasionally place the vrat and the snan on adjacent days.

And the city question: the tithi's start is a single worldwide instant, but sunrise and moonrise are local events. Two cities can share identical tithi timings on the clock yet watch the moon rise many minutes apart — occasionally on opposite sides of the tithi's boundary. The live card above already resolves all of this for your chosen city; this section only explains what it is resolving.

More vrat & tithi calendars

Ekadashi Dates
The 24 Vishnu fasting days with Smarta & Vaishnava dates
Amavasya Dates
New-moon days for pitru karma, snan and daan
Pradosh Vrat
Twilight Shiva worship — every Trayodashi with kaal timings
Festival Calendar
The full month-by-month Hindu festival calendar