Shardiya Navratri 2026: 11 to 20 October Full Calendar, and Why Saptami Falls on Two Days

2026-08-25

Navratri 2026 begins 11 October and closes with Vijayadashami on 20 October. In between, Saptami repeats across 17 and 18 October, and Durga Ashtami and Maha Navami share a single day, 19 October. Here is the full calendar and the reason behind it.

Shardiya Navratri 2026 begins on Sunday, 11 October and closes with Vijayadashami on Tuesday, 20 October. That part is straightforward. The part that will send people back to their panchang twice this year is the middle of the run: Saptami falls on two consecutive days, 17 and 18 October, and then Durga Ashtami and Maha Navami both land on 19 October.

None of this is an error in anyone's calendar. It is what the tithi timings actually produce this year. Below is the full day-by-day table, followed by a plain explanation of why the nine days arrange themselves this way. All times are calculated for Delhi and given in IST.

The short version

• Ghatasthapana: Sunday, 11 October 2026
• Pratipada tithi: begins 10 October at 21:20:43, ends 11 October at 21:32:11
• Saptami: Saturday 17 October and Sunday 18 October — one tithi, two days
• Durga Ashtami: Monday, 19 October
• Maha Navami: Monday, 19 October — the same day
• Vijayadashami (Dussehra): Tuesday, 20 October
• Length of the Navratri run: 11 to 19 October, nine calendar days

Navratri picks up directly from the close of the fortnight of ancestors. Sarva Pitru Amavasya falls on 10 October 2026, and Pratipada begins that same night at 21:20:43.

Ghatasthapana on 11 October, and the Chitra-Vaidhriti problem

The usual rule for Ghatasthapana is to establish the kalash during Pratipada, in the first one-third of the day. On 11 October, sunrise in Delhi is 06:20 and sunset 17:55, which puts that first third at 06:20 to 10:11.

There is a complication. Panchang-makers also set aside Chitra nakshatra and Vaidhriti yoga as periods to avoid for Ghatasthapana. On 11 October 2026, the panchang shows both — Chitra nakshatra (pada 2) and Vaidhriti yoga are running at sunrise. Chitra is only in its second pada at daybreak, so it continues for most of the day; the early window is not clean.

The accepted resolution is that these are not absolute prohibitions. When Chitra or Vaidhriti prevail, Ghatasthapana is performed in Abhijit muhurta, the middle muhurta of the day. Derived from that day's Delhi sunrise and sunset, Abhijit on 11 October runs roughly 11:44 to 12:31. Pratipada does not end until 21:32:11, so this window sits comfortably inside the tithi.

One thing worth saying plainly: the texts give the restriction without giving a reason. There is no explanation on offer for why Chitra and Vaidhriti are set aside, and inventing one would not make the rule any more or less binding.

The full nine-day calendar

Why Saptami lands on two days

A tithi is not a day. It is the time the Moon takes to gain twelve degrees on the Sun, and that stretch runs anywhere from about 21 to about 26 hours. A calendar day, meanwhile, is fixed. The two do not divide evenly.

The convention that resolves this is simple: the tithi running at sunrise is the tithi of that day. Usually one tithi claims exactly one sunrise. But when a tithi is long and happens to begin shortly before a sunrise, it can still be running at the next sunrise as well. It then claims two days. That is tithi vriddhi — a tithi that gains a day. Its opposite, tithi kshaya, happens when a short tithi begins and ends between two sunrises and claims none. Our tithi reference covers both in more detail.

This year Saptami begins on 17 October at 05:54:58 and ends on 18 October at 08:28:28. Delhi's sunrise is 06:24 on both mornings. Saptami is therefore running at both — and gets both days.

The 29 minutes that decided the whole calendar

It is tempting to assume the long tithi caused the vriddhi. It did not, on its own. Every tithi in this Navratri exceeds 24 hours — the Moon is moving slowly through this stretch. What singled out Saptami was where it started.

Ashtami is almost exactly as long as Saptami, and it gets one day. The difference is the margin at the start. Saptami opened 29 minutes and 2 seconds before sunrise on 17 October, and that head start carried it past the next sunrise with two hours to spare. Shashthi, running just as long, ended those same 29 minutes short of the 17 October sunrise and lost its claim. Had the Moon been a half-hour slower, Shashthi would have taken the extra day and Saptami would have been ordinary.

Why Durga Ashtami and Maha Navami share 19 October

Ashtami is running at sunrise on 19 October, so Durga Ashtami is 19 October. Straightforward.

Maha Navami takes more explaining. Navami's only sunrise is on 20 October — but 20 October is Vijayadashami. For Durga Puja the deciding period is not sunrise but aparahna, the fourth of five equal parts of the day. On 19 October, aparahna runs about 13:14 to 15:30, and Navami has been running since 10:52:04. Navami holds the aparahna of 19 October, so Maha Navami is observed on 19 October, alongside Ashtami.

The junction between them is Sandhi Puja — the last 24 minutes of Ashtami and the first 24 minutes of Navami. This year that window is 10:28:04 to 11:16:04 on 19 October.

Dussehra is 20 October even though sunrise shows Navami

Anyone reading the panchang on 20 October will see Navami at sunrise and wonder why it is Dussehra. Same rule, applied again. Dashami begins at 12:50:40, and aparahna on 20 October runs about 13:13 to 15:29. Dashami covers that entire window, so Vijayadashami is 20 October. The two rulings are consistent with each other: Navami takes the aparahna of the 19th, Dashami takes the aparahna of the 20th.

Notice the net effect. The repeat at Saptami added a day; the Ashtami-Navami merge took one away. The run stays at nine calendar days, 11 to 19 October, exactly as it would in an ordinary year — but with a different shape inside.

The nine colours, honestly

The colour list is a modern convention, keyed to the weekday: orange for Sunday, white for Monday, red for Tuesday, royal blue for Wednesday, yellow for Thursday, green for Friday, grey for Saturday. It spread through Marathi and Gujarati newspapers in the 2000s and is now printed almost everywhere.

It has no scriptural basis, published lists differ from one another, and no puja is diminished by ignoring it. We include it because readers look for it, not because it carries authority. The Navadurga sequence in the table is a different matter — those nine forms come from the Devi Kavacha, and the tithi-to-devi mapping is traditional.

Sunrise is not the same in your city

Every timing above is Delhi. Tithi start and end moments are astronomical and identical across India, but sunrise is not — and sunrise is what assigns a tithi to a day. On 15 September 2026, for example, our panchang gives these sunrise times:

That is a spread of more than an hour across the country. Ordinarily the gap changes nothing. This year it sits uncomfortably close to a 29-minute margin, so check your own city's panchang rather than assuming Delhi's timings apply to you.

What this means if you are fasting

Practically, very little changes. The fast runs 11 to 19 October, nine days, and ends with Ashtami and Navami puja on the 19th. The one adjustment is Saptami: it occupies both the 17th and the 18th, and Kalaratri's worship is generally kept on both. Households that observe only one Saptami usually take the second day, the one that carries into Ashtami. There is no single ruling that every tradition follows here, and we would rather say so than manufacture certainty.

After Dussehra, the next observance in this fortnight is Papankusha Ekadashi on 22 October.