Bhai Dooj on Wednesday, November 11 in India: tika times by city

Bhai Dooj, the festival on which sisters apply a tika to their brothers' foreheads and pray for their wellbeing, falls on Wednesday, 11 November 2026 in India, according to most widely used panchangs (Hindu almanacs). Drik Panchang gives the tika window, known as the aparahna or afternoon period, as 1:10 pm to 3:20 pm in New Delhi on that day. The Dwitiya tithi, the second lunar day of the bright fortnight of Kartika on which the festival is kept, begins at 2:00 pm on Tuesday, 10 November and ends at 3:53 pm on 11 November, by Drik Panchang's New Delhi reckoning. At least one almanac site, Samvat, gives 10 November instead, and several listings show 10 November for cities in North America and the UK.

Every year families ask the same question: which day is Bhai Dooj? The answer lies in how the Hindu lunar calendar works. A tithi is a lunar day, measured by the changing angle between the Sun and the Moon, and its length varies; a tithi does not start at midnight or sunrise. So a single tithi can begin in the middle of one day and end in the middle of the next, and almanac makers need a rule to decide which civil day hosts the festival.

For Bhai Dooj, the deciding period is the afternoon, called aparahna in the almanacs, because the tika ceremony is traditionally done then. In 2026, Dwitiya begins at about 2:00 pm on 10 November in Delhi, part-way through that day's afternoon window. On 11 November, Dwitiya is in force for the whole afternoon window and ends only at 3:53 pm. Panchangs that apply the afternoon rule therefore place the festival on 11 November, when the tithi covers the entire tika period. The Samvat site's different answer, 10 November, shows that calculation methods can vary, which is why families often follow their own family priest or regional almanac.

Location matters too. Because the Sun rises and sets at different times across the world, the afternoon window moves, and the tithi's start and end fall at different local clock times. In Los Angeles, for example, Drik Panchang shows Dwitiya beginning just after midnight on 10 November, so the whole of that day's afternoon falls within Dwitiya and the festival is listed on 10 November. That is why diaspora families in the US, Canada and the UK will often mark the day a day earlier than relatives in India.

Short-term: Families can plan visits and travel around Wednesday, 11 November in India; those abroad should check a panchang for their own city, which may show 10 November.

Long-term: Explaining the rule behind the date helps readers understand why festival dates shift from year to year and city to city, and why different almanacs sometimes disagree.

Who is affected: Families across India and the diaspora who mark Bhai Dooj, temple priests and almanac makers, and travellers planning trips home after Diwali.

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