Nagula Chavithi 2026 date: why India marks it on November 13

Nagula Chavithi 2026 falls on Friday, 13 November 2026 in India, according to the Drik Panchang almanac's listing for New Delhi. The Chavithi (Chaturthi) tithi, the fourth lunar day of the bright fortnight of Karthika, began at 6:09 pm on Thursday, 12 November and ends at 8:42 pm on Friday, 13 November, and the almanac gives a puja window of 11:01 am to 1:10 pm on the 13th. Some online calendars list Thursday, 12 November instead, and families in the United States and Canada mark the day on 12 November, a day before India, because the lunar day falls differently against local time there.

Calendars did not agree on the Nagula Chavithi 2026 date. The confusion is common for festivals tied to a tithi, the lunar day of the Hindu calendar. A tithi does not begin at midnight. It begins and ends at any hour, depending on the positions of the Sun and the Moon, and it can last more or less than a full solar day. This year the Chavithi tithi started on Thursday evening, so a calendar that lists every day on which the tithi is running will show both 12 and 13 November.

Most almanacs settle the question by looking at which tithi is running at sunrise. On the morning of 12 November the earlier lunar day, Tritiya, was still running, because Chavithi only began at 6:09 pm. On the morning of 13 November Chavithi was running, and it lasts until the evening. That is why the leading almanac places the festival on Friday for India. In North America the clock is many hours behind India, so the same moment in the sky falls during Thursday there, and the observance moves to 12 November.

The festival's place in the year is fixed by the lunar calendar. It falls on the Chaturthi, the fourth lunar day, after Deepavali Amavasya in the month of Karthika, which is why its date on the Western calendar shifts every year.

According to tradition, the day is devoted to the Naga devatas, the serpent deities. Families, and especially women praying for the well-being of their children, visit snake mounds or anthills, known in Telugu as putta, and pour milk into them. Offerings commonly include turmeric, kumkum, flowers and dry fruits, and some households worship a Naga idol at home instead. Practices vary from place to place. Temples of Lord Subrahmanya, who is linked with serpents in Telugu tradition, are known to draw large crowds on the day. These are matters of belief and custom; the almanac only fixes the timing.

Peepals calculation: The Chavithi tithi runs from 6:09 pm on 12 November to 8:42 pm on 13 November, which is 26 hours and 33 minutes (24 hours to 6:09 pm on the 13th, plus 2 hours 33 minutes). It is longer than one solar day, so it contains exactly one sunrise, that of 13 November. The puja window of 11:01 am to 1:10 pm lasts 2 hours 9 minutes and sits wholly inside the tithi. Our calculation from the reported figures.

Short-term: Families in India keep the anthill puja on Friday, 13 November; Telugu families in North America marked it on Thursday, 12 November.

Long-term: Gaps between calendars will keep returning for tithi-based festivals. Knowing that the tithi at sunrise usually decides the day helps families read a panchangam and plan without confusion.

Who is affected: Telugu-speaking families in India and abroad, temple managements expecting crowds, and priests who fix puja timings for their communities.

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