Karwa Chauth 2026 Date and Moonrise Time by City (India, UK, US, Canada)

Karwa Chauth 2026 is on Thursday 29 October in India. In Delhi the fast runs from sunrise at 6:31 AM to moonrise at 8:17 PM, and the puja muhurat is 5:38 PM to 6:56 PM.

If you live in the US or Canada, the date is different: Drik Panchang's calendars for New York, Toronto, San Francisco and Vancouver all put Karwa Chauth on Wednesday 28 October 2026. In the UK it stays on Thursday 29 October.

Below you'll find the moonrise and puja times for major cities, the reason for the date difference abroad, and a simple plan for the day, from the pre-dawn sargi to the moon.

Karwa Chauth 2026 at a glance

	New Delhi
Date	Thursday 29 October 2026
Fast (upavas)	6:31 AM to 8:17 PM (13 hours 46 minutes)
Puja muhurat	5:38 PM to 6:56 PM
Moonrise	8:17 PM
Chaturthi tithi	1:06 AM to 10:09 PM on 29 October

All times are from Drik Panchang. The festival is also called Karak Chaturthi, after the karwa or karak, the earthen pot used to offer water (argha) to the moon. This year it coincides with Sankashti Chaturthi.

Karwa Chauth (also spelled Karva Chauth) falls on the fourth day of the waning moon (Krishna Paksha) in the month of Kartika. It's observed mainly in Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu, and by families from these regions around the world (Wikipedia).

Karwa Chauth 2026 moonrise time by city in India

Moonrise is what everyone is waiting for, and it varies by well over an hour across India. These are Drik Panchang's times for Thursday 29 October:

City	Puja muhurat	Moonrise (fast ends)
Kolkata	5:01 PM to 6:17 PM	7:47 PM
Lucknow	5:26 PM to 6:43 PM	8:06 PM
Chandigarh	5:38 PM to 6:55 PM	8:12 PM
New Delhi	5:38 PM to 6:56 PM	8:17 PM
Jaipur	5:46 PM to 7:03 PM	8:28 PM
Bengaluru	5:54 PM to 7:08 PM	8:55 PM
Mumbai	6:07 PM to 7:22 PM	9:00 PM

A few things worth knowing:

• Mumbai and Bengaluru wait longest. The moon rises about 40 to 45 minutes later than in Delhi, so the fast is nearly 14.5 hours in Mumbai (6:37 AM to 9:00 PM).
• Moonrise is when the moon clears the horizon, not when you'll see it. Buildings, haze or cloud can add a while. Many families watch from the roof or an open balcony.
• Other cities: search for your city on the Drik Panchang Karwa Chauth page. Some websites list slightly different moonrise times, so pick one source and stick with it.

Karwa Chauth 2026 in the US, Canada and UK

Hindu festival dates follow the tithi (lunar day), which starts and ends at the same moment worldwide but at different local clock times. In North America, the chaturthi tithi runs from 3:36 PM on Wednesday 28 October to 12:39 PM on Thursday 29 October (New York time), so Drik Panchang places Karwa Chauth on Wednesday there.

City	Date	Puja muhurat	Moonrise
London	Thursday 29 October	4:39 PM to 6:04 PM	6:31 PM
New York	Wednesday 28 October	5:57 PM to 7:18 PM	7:35 PM
Toronto	Wednesday 28 October	6:14 PM to 7:35 PM	7:45 PM
San Francisco	Wednesday 28 October	6:15 PM to 7:35 PM	8:08 PM
Vancouver	Wednesday 28 October	5:57 PM to 7:21 PM	7:18 PM

Times are local, from Drik Panchang's pages for each city. Two practical notes:

• Your temple's calendar decides. If your mandir or family follows the Indian date instead, they'll tell you. Check before you plan the day off or the evening gathering, because Wednesday and Thursday make a real difference to work and school plans.
• The clocks change around this time. UK clocks go back on Sunday 25 October, so London's times above are already in GMT. In the US and Canada, daylight saving time ends on Sunday 1 November, after Karwa Chauth. If you call family in India on the day, the gap is 5½ hours from London, 9½ hours from New York and 12½ hours from California. See our guide to the clocks going back for the dates.

What happens on the day

Customs vary between families and regions, but the day usually follows this shape (Wikipedia):

1. Sargi before sunrise. A pre-dawn meal, traditionally sent or given by the mother-in-law, especially in Punjabi families, where it traditionally includes fenia (sweet vermicelli).
2. The fast. From sunrise until moonrise, with no food and no water for those keeping a nirjala fast.
3. Evening puja. Women gather, often in a circle, for the puja and the Karwa Chauth katha (story), exchanging decorated karwas during the puja muhurat.
4. Moonrise. The moon is viewed, often through a sieve or a cloth, water is offered to it, and then the husband offers the first sip of water of the day, which breaks the fast.

A note on health: a full day without water is hard on the body. If you're pregnant, breastfeeding, diabetic or taking regular medication, talk to your doctor before the day about whether to fast, and whether a gentler version, such as allowing water, would be wiser.

A simple reminder plan for Karwa Chauth

The two times that are easy to miss are the sargi in the dark, when you're groggy, and the puja muhurat in the evening, when you're busy with guests and getting ready. Here's a plan for Delhi times. Shift it for your city using the tables above.

When	Reminder
A week before (Thu 22 Oct)	Buy the karwa, sieve, diya and puja thali items. Order mehendi or book the mehendi artist.
Day before (Wed 28 Oct), evening	Prepare the sargi tray and keep it in the fridge. Set out the outfit and jewellery.
Thu 29 Oct, 4:45 AM	Wake up for sargi. Eat and drink calmly before sunrise at 6:31 AM.
Thu 29 Oct, 5:15 PM	Get ready; puja starts at 5:38 PM.
Thu 29 Oct, 8:00 PM	Head to the roof or balcony; moonrise is at 8:17 PM.

In the US or Canada, use the same plan one day earlier, on Wednesday 28 October, with your local sunrise and moonrise times.

How ReminderIt can help

A phone alarm at 4:45 AM is easy to switch off half-asleep. A ringing phone call is much harder to ignore. ReminderIt calls your phone at the time you set and reads out your reminder in a natural voice, for example: "It's 4:45. Time for sargi. Sunrise is at 6:31." If you miss the call, the reminder arrives on WhatsApp too.

You can set it up just by sending a WhatsApp message, such as "Call me on 29 October at 4:45am for sargi" or "Call me at 8pm on 29 October, moonrise at 8:17". There's no app to install, and the call can be in Hindi as well as English.

Living abroad and want to remind your mother or mother-in-law in India about the sargi, or the other way round? You can set reminders that ring their phone instead. They confirm their number once with a short verification call, so nobody gets calls they didn't agree to. Our guide on setting a reminder for someone else shows how.

There's a 7-day free trial with 7 reminder calls in most countries, including India, the US and Canada. On a UK number the trial includes 3 calls, because calls to the UK cost more. After that it's one plan: ₹299 a month in India, or $7 a month elsewhere.

Karwa Chauth opens the festive season. For what comes next, see our Diwali 2026 dates and muhurat times, from Dhanteras to Bhai Dooj, and Chhath Puja 2026 dates and arghya times.

The short answer

Karwa Chauth 2026 is on Thursday 29 October in India and the UK, and on Wednesday 28 October in the US and Canada. In Delhi the fast is from 6:31 AM to moonrise at 8:17 PM, with the puja muhurat from 5:38 PM to 6:56 PM. The moon rises at 7:47 PM in Kolkata, 8:12 PM in Chandigarh, 8:28 PM in Jaipur and 9:00 PM in Mumbai. Eat sargi before sunrise, and set your evening plan around your own city's moonrise.

Sources: Drik Panchang, Karwa Chauth 2026 date and time (New Delhi; choose your city on the page to see local times, which is how the other city figures were taken); Wikipedia, Karva Chauth. Customs and dates can differ between families and communities, so follow your family's or temple's calendar where it differs.