Sharad Navratri 2026

Sharad Navratri 2026 begins on Sunday, 11 October 2026. The day is Ashwina Shukla Pratipada, and the tithi is tested at sunrise — the instant of sunrise itself.

The date, and how it was decided

Sharad Navratri 2026 begins on Sunday, 11 October 2026.

The day is Ashwina Shukla Pratipada. The tithi alone does not fix the date: a tithi rarely fills a civil day, so a festival names the period its tithi has to be running in. For Sharad Navratri that period is sunrise, the instant of sunrise itself. The tithi running at sunrise names the day.

Navratri is nine nights, not one day. The first day is Ghatasthapana, when the pot is set and the barley sown; the ninth is Mahanavami and the tenth is Vijayadashami. Where a tithi is lost or repeated the nine nights can span eight or ten civil days, which is why the closing date is computed separately rather than counted forward.

Sunrise in your city

The tithi running at sunrise names the day. It is set by the Sun at your own horizon, so it is not the same time across the country — the spread below is about forty minutes end to end.

This is the whole of sunrise, computed as the instant of sunrise itself at that city's own sunrise and sunset. Almanacs often also print a narrower muhurat inside it, chosen for a fixed sign rising rather than for the tithi; if you have seen a shorter window elsewhere, that is what it was, and it sits inside this one.

Other dates in 2026

Vijayadashami · Dhanteras · Diwali

How a tithi is computed · Why the day starts at sunrise