Chaitra Month in the Hindu Calendar: Festivals and Dates for 2026 and 2027

Chaitra is where the Hindu lunar year begins for most of India. A new moon opens the month, the bright half starts the next morning, and on its first day, Chaitra Shukla Pratipada, families in the Deccan raise a Gudi or prepare the bitter and sweet mixture of Ugadi, while the north opens nine days of Navratri. For many people this one day is both a religious new year and the first day of the Vikram and Shaka years that follow.

The name comes from the Moon. Each month is named after the nakshatra, the lunar mansion, in which the full moon usually stands, and for Chaitra that nakshatra is Chitra, the bright star Spica at the meeting of Kanya and Tula. Chitra means bright or striking. The match with the sky is approximate today, since the months drift slowly against the stars, but the name is fixed by tradition.

Chaitra is the first month of the lunar year as counted from Chaitra, and the first of the two months of Vasanta, the season of spring. The nakshatra behind the name is Chitra, the bright star Spica. To see where Chaitra sits between Phalguna and Vaishakha, read the page on the lunar year, and for the year that counts these months see Vikram Samvat.

Spring in the two months of Vasanta

Chaitra is the first of the two months of Vasanta, spring, and Vaishakha is the second. It is the season of new leaves, mango blossom, neem flower and the first real warmth. The Ugadi mixture shows the idea well: neem flowers, jaggery, raw mango, tamarind, salt and chilli, six tastes in one bowl, offered as a reminder that the year ahead will hold all of them. The preparation is a custom of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Karnataka; Maharashtra marks the same morning with the Gudi, a bright cloth tied on a staff with neem leaves and sugar crystals.

Festivals of Chaitra

Ugadi and Gudi Padwa fall on Shukla Pratipada. Cheti Chand among Sindhi families and Navreh in Kashmir are kept at about the same time. Chaitra Navratri runs for nine days from that morning, with worship of the Goddess in her nine forms; the Navratri ghatasthapana guide and the daily Navratri puja set out the steps. Ram Navami is Shukla Navami, the ninth day, kept at midday, and the Ram Navami puja vidhi gives the sequence. Hanuman Jayanti is kept on Chaitra Purnima in the north and in much of the diaspora, though other regions keep it at another time, and the Hanuman Jayanti puja page covers the worship. Gangaur, the spring festival of Shiva and Parvati in Rajasthan, falls on the third day of the bright half.

The dark half of Chaitra has two names

The bright half of Chaitra, which holds every festival listed above, is Chaitra in both amanta and purnimanta calendars, so its dates never move between systems. The dark half is another matter. The fortnight that ends the amanta month of Chaitra is called Vaishakha Krishna paksha in the north, so a family there reads it as the first half of a different month. And the dark half that comes just before Chaitra Shukla Pratipada, which the south and west call the end of Phalguna, is Chaitra Krishna paksha in the north. The two systems are explained on the amanta and purnimanta page.

Chaitra in 2026 and 2027: dates

These are the instants at which each amanta month named Chaitra begins and ends, taken from a computation of the new moon in Indian Standard Time. In each row the Chaitra bright half (Shukla paksha) opens at the new moon and runs to the full moon about a fortnight later, and the dark half (Krishna paksha) carries on to the next new moon.

In purnimanta reckoning, the month called Chaitra starts at the full moon that falls inside the amanta Phalguna, so it begins about two weeks before each date in the Starts column, and it ends at the full moon inside the amanta Chaitra. The bright half is identical in both systems. Only the dark half changes its name: the fortnight that closes each amanta Chaitra in the table is called Vaishakha Krishna paksha in the purnimanta count. The full moon that splits Chaitra in two is listed for your own city on the Purnima page, and the method page explains how these instants were calculated.

Ekadashis in Chaitra

The bright half of Chaitra has Kamada Ekadashi, and the dark half of the amanta month has Varuthini Ekadashi, which printed purnimanta lists place under Vaishakha. Each Ekadashi name stays fixed in every system, and only the month label moves for the Chaitra dark half. How to keep the fast is in the Ekadashi vrat vidhi, and the Ekadashi festival page gives the Chaitra days for your city.

Chaitra in regional calendars

Marathi calendars write Chaitra and Gujarati calendars Chaitra. Tamil calendars follow the Sun, and the solar months that usually overlap Chaitra are Panguni and Chithirai. The overlapping Malayalam months are Meenam and Medam, the Bengali months are Choitro and Boishakh, and the Punjabi months are Chet and Vaisakh. In Bengal Choitro is the last month of the Bengali year, while the Telugu and Kannada new year, Ugadi, opens Chaitra Shukla Pratipada. The pairing is approximate: a solar month starts when the Sun enters a sign, so the lunar Chaitra overlaps those months without matching their dates.

Related pages

The month before is Phalguna and the month after is Vaishakha. To see why Chaitra can carry two labels, read the page on amanta and purnimanta, and for today’s tithi and nakshatra open the panchang. All twelve months are on the Hindu calendar hub.

Frequently asked questions