Kartika Month in the Hindu Calendar: Govardhan Puja, Chhath and Dates

Kartika is the month of lamps. Many families keep a lamp lit at the tulsi plant each evening of the month, and in some regions a lamp is raised on a pole high in the sky, the Akash Deepa. The name comes from the nakshatra Krittika, the Pleiades, in which the full moon of the month usually stands.

Krittika is the nakshatra of the six mothers who nursed the child Kartikeya in the tradition. In the Tamil calendar the nearby solar month Karthigai holds the festival of lights, Karthigai Deepam, which is named for the same star group.

Kartika is the eighth month of the lunar year as counted from Chaitra, and the second of the two months of Sharad, the season of autumn. The nakshatra behind the name is Krittika, the Pleiades. To see where Kartika sits between Ashwina and Margashirsha, read the page on the lunar year, and for the year that counts these months see Vikram Samvat.

The second of the autumn months

Kartika is the second month of Sharad, autumn. It is the clearest and mildest part of the year in the north: the harvest is in, the air is dry, and the festival calendar settles into a slower rhythm after Diwali. The old custom of the Kartika bath at dawn in a river suits the cool mornings, and the month is one of the favourite times for pilgrimage.

Festivals of Kartika

Govardhan Puja and Annakut fall on Shukla Pratipada, the first day after the Diwali new moon, and the Govardhan Puja vidhi sets out the worship. In Gujarat the same morning is the New Year, Bestu Varas. Bhai Dooj is the second day, with the Bhai Dooj puja guide. Chhath Puja is on Shukla Shashthi, the sixth day, when the setting and rising Sun are worshipped; read the Chhath puja vidhi. Gopashtami is the eighth and Akshaya Navami the ninth. Prabodhini Ekadashi, also called Dev Uthani Ekadashi, falls on Shukla Ekadashi, when Vishnu is said to wake after the four months of Chaturmas, and Tulsi Vivah, the ceremonial marriage of the tulsi plant, follows on or after that day.

Kartik Purnima

The full moon of Kartika is among the most widely kept of all, called Kartik Purnima. It is Dev Deepavali in Varanasi, when the ghats are lit with lamps, and in the Sikh tradition it is the day on which Guru Nanak is remembered. The fair at Pushkar in Rajasthan is held around it. The Purnima page gives the timing for a city. The wedding season in much of India opens after Prabodhini Ekadashi, which is why Kartika is a month in which marriage invitations begin to arrive.

Kartika in 2026 and 2027: dates

These are the instants at which each amanta month named Kartika begins and ends, taken from a computation of the new moon in Indian Standard Time. In each row the Kartika 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 Kartika starts at the full moon that falls inside the amanta Ashwina, so it begins about two weeks before each date in the Starts column, and it ends at the full moon inside the amanta Kartika. The bright half is identical in both systems. Only the dark half changes its name: the fortnight that closes each amanta Kartika in the table is called Margashirsha Krishna paksha in the purnimanta count. The full moon that splits Kartika in two is listed for your own city on the Purnima page, and the method page explains how these instants were calculated.

Ekadashis in Kartika

The bright half of Kartika has Prabodhini (Dev Uthani) Ekadashi, and the dark half of the amanta month has Utpanna Ekadashi, which printed purnimanta lists place under Margashirsha. Each Ekadashi name stays fixed in every system, and only the month label moves for the Kartika dark half. How to keep the fast is in the Ekadashi vrat vidhi, and the Ekadashi festival page gives the Kartika days for your city.

Kartika in regional calendars

Marathi calendars write Kartik and Gujarati calendars Kartak. Tamil calendars follow the Sun, and the solar months that usually overlap Kartika are Aippasi and Karthigai. The overlapping Malayalam months are Thulam and Vrischikam, the Bengali months are Kartik and Agrahayan, and the Punjabi months are Katak and Maghar. In Tamil Nadu the month shares its name with Karthigai Deepam, and in Gujarat the month opens with the New Year. The pairing is approximate: a solar month starts when the Sun enters a sign, so the lunar Kartika overlaps those months without matching their dates.

Related pages

The month before is Ashwina and the month after is Margashirsha. To see why Kartika 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.

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