Vivah Panchami is the wedding day of Lord Ram and Sita. By the Ramayana, King Janak of Mithila had found the infant Sita in a furrow of the field, and when she came of age he set a single condition for her hand: that her husband be the one who could lift and string the great bow of Shiva, the Pinaka, which no king had ever moved. At the svayamvar Ram lifted it, and it broke in his hands with a sound like thunder — and so he won Sita. The marriage that followed at Janakpur is what this day remembers. In 2026 it falls on Monday, 14 December.
The date is Margashirsha Shukla Panchami, the fifth day of the bright fortnight of Margashirsha — the month also called Agahan. The Panchami tithi runs from 4:49 PM on 13 December to 7:17 PM on the 14th, and because Panchami is present at sunrise on the 14th, that is the day the vivah is kept. It is celebrated most grandly at Janakpur in Nepal, Sita's Mithila, and at Ayodhya, Ram's city, with the marriage re-enacted from the Balkand of the Ramayana. One tradition sits alongside the joy: in parts of North India many families choose not to fix their own weddings on this day, since Ram and Sita's married life carried exile and long separation.
Vivah Panchami 2026 at a glance
- Festival day
- Mon, 14 December 2026
- Lunar month
- Margashirsha (Agahan) · Shukla
- Panchami tithi
- 13 Dec 4:49 PM → 14 Dec 7:17 PM
- The day marks
- The marriage of Ram and Sita
- Chief places
- Janakpur (Nepal) · Ayodhya
- Deities
- Ram & Sita (Sita-Ram)
The two cards hold the two facts a reader comes for. Vivah Panchami 2026 is Monday, 14 December, kept on Margashirsha Shukla Panchami. The Panchami tithi itself opens at 4:49 PM on 13 December and closes at 7:17 PM on the 14th, so the day of the vivah is the 14th — the day the tithi covers the sunrise. The times here are for New Delhi in IST; the tithi window shifts a little with your city, so confirm your local timing on the panchang.
What Vivah Panchami marks
Sita of Mithila, the bow of Shiva, and the marriage at Janakpur
The story belongs to the Balkand, the first book of the Ramayana. King Janak of Mithila, ploughing a field in a rite for rain, turned up an infant girl from a furrow of the earth and raised her as his own; because she was found in the furrow — sita — that became her name. When she was grown, Janak set her svayamvar around the Haradhanu, the colossal bow of Shiva kept in his court, which it took hundreds of men to move: whoever could lift it and string it would marry Sita. Kings came and failed, some unable even to stir it. Then Ram, come to Mithila at the sage Vishwamitra's side, walked to the bow, raised it as if it weighed nothing, and in the drawing of the string it snapped in two with a crack heard across the kingdom. Sita placed the garland at his neck, and Janak sent word to Ayodhya; Ram and his three brothers were wed to Sita and her sisters in a single great ceremony. That wedding is Vivah Panchami.
Step 1
Sita of the furrow
King Janak finds the infant Sita while ploughing.
Step 2
The vow
Her hand to whoever can string Shiva's bow.
Step 3
The bow breaks
Ram lifts it, and it snaps in two.
Step 4
The wedding
Ram and Sita are wed at Janakpur.
The vivah, step by step
How the marriage of Ram and Sita is performed
The heart of the day is the vivah itself, solemnised again before the sacred fire — idols of Ram and Sita dressed as groom and bride, and the full marriage rites performed in order.
1.Mandap & idols
Ram and Sita are dressed as groom and bride.
2.Puja
Ganesh and Gauri are worshipped first.
3.Jaimala
Bride and groom exchange garlands.
4.Kanyadaan
Janak gives Sita's hand.
5.Saptapadi
Seven steps around the sacred fire.
6.Katha & aarti
The marriage canto is read and aarti sung.
How the day is kept
The fast, the wedding songs, and the great centres
Many keep a fast until the ceremony is done, and through the evening temples, homes and Sita-Ram mandirs across Mithila and North India read the marriage canto of the Ramcharitmanas or the Valmiki Ramayana and sing the old wedding songs of Mithila. The two great centres are Janakpur in Nepal — Sita's Mithila, where a baraat arrives from Ayodhya and the festivity runs for days — and Ayodhya itself, Ram's city.
💭Why some avoid weddings on this day
In parts of North India, many families choose not to fix their own children's weddings on Vivah Panchami. Although it is Ram and Sita's own wedding day, their married life carried the fourteen-year exile, Sita's abduction and their later separation — so the day is kept as a divine marriage to witness, not always one to imitate. In Mithila and Janakpur, by contrast, it is the grandest day of the year.
See the panchang for your city on 14 December
The Panchami tithi here — 13 Dec 4:49 PM to 14 Dec 7:17 PM — is for New Delhi. For your own city's sunrise, tithi and choghadiya on 14 December, or any day, open the live panchang.
Vivah Panchami 2026 — your questions
The date, the Ram-Sita marriage, and how the day is observed