Ahoi Ashtami 2026 is Sunday, 1 November — and the number you need is your own sunset

Ahoi Ashtami 2026 falls on Sunday, 1 November. It is kept on Kartik Krishna Ashtami — the eighth tithi, or lunar day, of the waning fortnight. North India’s purnimanta calendars, which end a month at the full moon, call that month Kartik; the amanta calendars of west and south India, which end a month at the new moon, place the same days in Ashvin. One day, two month-names, and neither is wrong. The rest of the season around it — Karva Chauth three days before, Dhanteras and Diwali the week after — is on our 2026 festival calendar, with the same computation behind every date.

It is a fast kept mainly by mothers for the wellbeing and long life of their children, observed chiefly in north and north-west India — Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and parts of Gujarat — and much less in the south and east. That is a regional fact, not a universal one, and it is worth saying at the outset.

The date is the easy half. What makes this fast different from Karva Chauth, kept three days earlier, is that it does not end with a moon at dusk. The rite is performed after sunset, and the fast is broken on sighting the stars — tara darshan, literally "the seeing of the stars". So the number a household actually needs is its own city’s sunset: that is when the puja window opens and the twilight that leads to the stars begins.

And sunset is not a national time. Across India on 1 November it moves by 66 minutes — 4:59 pm in Kolkata, 6:05 pm in Mumbai. A time forwarded from a relative in another state is not approximately right; it is the wrong time, by more than an hour at the extremes. This guide gives your city’s minute, states how it was obtained, and teaches the rule well enough that you could check it yourself.

Your city’s sunrise, sunset and moonrise on 1 November 2026, computed

Times below are Indian Standard Time for Sunday, 1 November 2026, ordered by sunset. Sunrise is when the fast begins; sunset is when the puja window opens; moonrise is the late arghya — the offering of water — for the households that keep it. A moon that rises after midnight belongs to the small hours of Monday, and is marked so.

Three spreads are worth noticing. Sunrise runs from 5:41 am in Kolkata to 6:46 am in Amritsar — 65 minutes, so the fast begins an hour apart across the country. Sunset runs from 4:59 pm to 6:05 pm — 66 minutes. Moonrise runs from 11:01 pm in Kolkata to 12:11 am in Mumbai — 70 minutes.

• Kolkata — sunrise 5:41 am · sunset 4:59 pm · moonrise 11:01 pm
• Patna — sunrise 5:57 am · sunset 5:09 pm · moonrise 11:08 pm
• Varanasi — sunrise 6:05 am · sunset 5:18 pm · moonrise 11:18 pm
• Lucknow — sunrise 6:16 am · sunset 5:24 pm · moonrise 11:24 pm
• Chandigarh — sunrise 6:37 am · sunset 5:35 pm · moonrise 11:33 pm
• Delhi — sunrise 6:33 am · sunset 5:36 pm · moonrise 11:36 pm
• Amritsar — sunrise 6:46 am · sunset 5:42 pm · moonrise 11:39 pm
• Chennai — sunrise 6:02 am · sunset 5:42 pm · moonrise 11:50 pm
• Bhopal — sunrise 6:25 am · sunset 5:42 pm · moonrise 11:45 pm
• Jaipur — sunrise 6:36 am · sunset 5:44 pm · moonrise 11:45 pm
• Hyderabad — sunrise 6:14 am · sunset 5:45 pm · moonrise 11:51 pm
• Indore — sunrise 6:31 am · sunset 5:49 pm · moonrise 11:52 pm
• Bengaluru — sunrise 6:13 am · sunset 5:53 pm · moonrise 12:02 am (Mon)
• Ahmedabad — sunrise 6:44 am · sunset 6:02 pm · moonrise 12:06 am (Mon)
• Pune — sunrise 6:34 am · sunset 6:02 pm · moonrise 12:08 am (Mon)
• Mumbai — sunrise 6:39 am · sunset 6:05 pm · moonrise 12:11 am (Mon)

The Ashtami window, and why Sunday is clean everywhere in India

A tithi is not a day. It is the interval during which the moon gains a fixed twelve degrees on the sun, and it can be shorter or longer than a civil day. This year’s waning fortnight began after the Sharad Purnima of 26 October and runs to the Amavasya, the new moon, of 9 November. Inside it, the Saptami — the seventh tithi — began at 4:58 pm on Saturday 31 October; the Ashtami runs from 2:52 pm IST on Sunday 1 November to 1:11 pm IST on Monday 2 November, twenty-two hours and nineteen minutes; and the Navami, the ninth, ends at 11:55 am on Tuesday 3 November.

Which civil day gets the fast? The rule almanacs follow is a convention — widely applied, stated by no text — and it reads like this: the fast belongs to the day on which the Ashtami holds the evening, meaning the sunset and the twilight after it. The reasoning is the rite itself: the puja is performed after sunset and the fast is broken at the stars, so the tithi has to be running when the sun goes down.

In 2026 that test names Sunday everywhere in India with nothing to adjudicate. The Ashtami began two hours and forty-four minutes before Delhi’s 5:36 pm sunset and three hours and thirteen minutes before Mumbai’s 6:05 pm, so every Sunday sunset in the country falls inside it; by every Monday sunset it has ended — Delhi’s by four hours and twenty-five minutes. Hold on to that, because it becomes a genuine question the moment you cross an ocean.

Three days after Karva Chauth, not four — the objection, answered

The objection will come, and it deserves a straight answer: everyone says Ahoi Ashtami is four days after Karva Chauth and eight days before Diwali. That is how tradition describes it. This year the calendar reads three and seven. Karva Chauth 2026 was Thursday 29 October — its Chaturthi ran from 1:07 am to 10:11 pm IST that day — and Ahoi Ashtami is Sunday 1 November, three days later. The Lakshmi Puja of Diwali is Sunday 8 November, seven days after the Ashtami.

Nothing has been misprinted. The tithis in this fortnight are running short of a civil day: the Ashtami itself lasts twenty-two hours and nineteen minutes, and the four tithis from the Chaturthi’s end at 10:11 pm on the 29th to the Ashtami’s end at 1:11 pm on the 2nd take three days and fifteen hours between them. Four tithis fitted into fewer than four days means the calendar count compresses. The tradition counts tithis; the calendar counts sunrises; this year they differ by one.

The dates at a glance are on our Karva Chauth 2026 page and Diwali 2026 page, each with the same computation behind it.

Stars, not the moon — what tara darshan is, and why we print no minute for it

This is where Ahoi Ashtami parts company with Karva Chauth, and where most published lists go wrong by treating the two alike. On Karva Chauth the fast ends at moonrise, an event a computer can time to the minute. On Ahoi Ashtami the fast is commonly broken at tara darshan — the sighting of the stars after the evening puja, with an offering of water made to them.

Star sighting is not a computed panchang limb, and this guide does not print a "stars visible" minute, because there is not one. Whether you see a star at a given moment depends on your sky, your horizon, and which bright objects happen to be up. The almanac "stars visible" time is itself a twilight convention — a fixed interval after sunset — and not an observation.

What we can say is what the sky will hold. Take Delhi. By about six o’clock — some twenty-five minutes after the 5:36 pm sunset, with the sun about six degrees below the horizon — the brightest steady point in the eastern sky is the planet Saturn, low in the east-south-east, and it is usually the first "star" a household sees that evening. The true stars follow over the next quarter of an hour. Venus, the usual early beacon, is a morning star this November and is not in the evening sky at all.

For any other city, add roughly the same twenty-five minutes to your own sunset from the list above, and look east. That is a starting point for looking, not a minute the sky is obliged to keep.

The midnight moon, for the households that wait for it

Many households — not all — also offer arghya to the moon late that night, as on Karva Chauth. Where that is the family’s custom, the Ashtami moon is a half moon, about half lit, and it rises near midnight rather than at dusk: 11:36 pm in Delhi, and after midnight in Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad and Bengaluru, in the small hours of Monday.

Be clear about what this is and is not. The fast itself is commonly broken at the stars; the moon arghya is the practice of some households and regions. If your family has never offered to the moon on this night, the table above is not an instruction to begin. If it has, the moonrise column is your minute, and the Karva Chauth ritual guide describes the arghya itself, which does not change between the two nights.

Why our minute may differ from the one you saw elsewhere — and what the difference rests on

You will find sunset and moonrise times for the same city published a few minutes apart. That is not usually carelessness; it is because each is more than one quantity, and almost nobody says which one they computed. Here is the convention behind every number on this page:

• Upper limb, with standard atmospheric refraction. We take sunrise, sunset and moonrise as the instant the edge of the disc crosses the horizon, with the standard refraction correction applied. A table that uses the centre of the disc instead reads a minute or three later — a real difference, not an error, and the most common reason two honest tables disagree.
• City centre, at sea level. No elevation correction. Elevation and a built-up horizon shift what you actually see, sometimes by more than any of these differences.
• Swiss Ephemeris, on the same code path our live Panchang uses for every other timing on the site — so the sunset on this page and the sunset the product shows you are one computation, not two guesses.
• Rounded to the nearest minute. The underlying values carry seconds; publishing them would imply a precision the atmosphere does not offer.

Ahoi Ashtami abroad: which evening is actually yours

The Ashtami is fixed in absolute time — it opened at 09:22 UTC on Sunday 1 November and closes at 07:41 UTC on Monday 2 November — while your sunset is fixed by where you stand. The rule asks whether a sunset falls inside that window, and the answer depends on your longitude. Below are Sunday’s sunset and that night’s moonrise for twelve cities, local time, with the local moment the Ashtami ends. One note for North America: the clocks go back an hour at 2 am on Sunday 1 November — except in British Columbia, which now keeps UTC−7 all year and no longer changes its clock with Seattle — and every time here is already in the standard time in force that evening.

• New York — sunset 4:52 pm · moonrise 11:14 pm · Ashtami ends 2:41 am Monday
• Toronto — sunset 5:08 pm · moonrise 11:29 pm · Ashtami ends 2:41 am Monday
• Chicago — sunset 4:45 pm · moonrise 11:08 pm · Ashtami ends 1:41 am Monday
• Houston — sunset 5:35 pm · moonrise 12:06 am (Mon) · Ashtami ends 1:41 am Monday
• San Francisco — sunset 5:11 pm · moonrise 11:44 pm · Ashtami ends 11:41 pm Sunday
• Vancouver — sunset 5:51 pm · moonrise 12:17 am (Mon) · Ashtami ends 12:41 am Monday
• London — sunset 4:34 pm · moonrise 10:28 pm · Ashtami ends 7:41 am Monday
• Dubai — sunset 5:38 pm · moonrise 11:44 pm · Ashtami ends 11:41 am Monday
• Singapore — sunset 6:51 pm · moonrise 1:00 am (Mon) · Ashtami ends 3:41 pm Monday
• Sydney — sunset 7:23 pm · moonrise 1:46 am (Mon) · Ashtami begins 8:22 pm Sunday, ends 6:41 pm Monday
• Melbourne — sunset 7:55 pm · moonrise 2:21 am (Mon) · Ashtami begins 8:22 pm Sunday, ends 6:41 pm Monday
• Auckland — sunset 7:54 pm · moonrise 2:17 am (Mon) · Ashtami begins 10:22 pm Sunday, ends 8:41 pm Monday

Four findings, from no split at all to one genuine one

First, North America, Britain, the Gulf and Singapore: Sunday’s sunset is inside the Ashtami in every one of these cities, so there is no split from India. Singapore is the tightest at the start — the Ashtami had begun 88 minutes before its 6:51 pm sunset — but inside is inside. Readers of the Karva Chauth 2026 guide, where New York kept the fast a day early and London had no qualifying moonrise at all, will be braced for trouble here. For the stars rule, there is none.

Second, San Francisco, where the two rites part company. Sunday’s 5:11 pm sunset is inside the Ashtami, so the stars rule gives Sunday cleanly. But the Ashtami ends there at 11:41 pm Sunday and the moon rises at 11:44 pm — three minutes after the tithi has closed — so a household that waits for the moon is offering to a Navami moon. Vancouver’s 12:17 am moonrise is inside with 24 minutes to spare.

Third, Sydney and Melbourne, where no sunset falls inside the Ashtami at all. The tithi begins at 8:22 pm on Sunday — 59 minutes after Sydney’s 7:23 pm sunset, 27 minutes after Melbourne’s 7:55 pm — and ends on Monday at 6:41 pm, 43 minutes before Sydney’s 7:24 pm Monday sunset and 75 minutes before Melbourne’s 7:56 pm. Under the strict sunset reading neither evening qualifies: it is the counterpart of the London case in the Karva Chauth guide. The sensible reading, and the one that matches the Indian date, is to keep Sunday and let the puja and the star-sighting wait until 8:22 pm, when the Ashtami has actually begun. The moon that night — 1:46 am in Sydney, 2:21 am in Melbourne — is inside it.

Fourth, Auckland, the one genuine split. The Ashtami begins there at 10:22 pm on Sunday, two hours and twenty-eight minutes after the 7:54 pm sunset; but Monday’s 7:55 pm sunset falls inside it, 46 minutes before it ends. Applied where you stand, the rule gives Monday 2 November; the Indian date is Sunday.

So what should a household abroad actually do?

Two readings are defensible, and the Karva Chauth 2026 guide set them out at length; here they are for this night.

Follow the Indian date. Keep the fast on Sunday 1 November wherever you are, perform the puja after your own sunset, and break the fast at the stars. This is what most diaspora households do: it keeps you in step with parents and in-laws back home, and a vrat — a vow — has always been as much about the household keeping it together as about the sky. In Sydney and Melbourne, on this reading, wait for 8:22 pm before the lamp is lit, so that the Ashtami is running when the rite is performed.

Apply the rule where you stand. Keep the fast on the day whose sunset falls inside the Ashtami — Monday in Auckland, Sunday everywhere else on the list. This is the more literal reading of what the observance is.

Whichever you choose, choose it deliberately and tell the family. Never keep two days. If you would like to talk it through for your own city, ask our Purohit — it computes the panchang for any location and any date, so it can put your sunset, your moonrise and the tithi window side by side.

The evening itself, in brief

What follows is common north-Indian practice; families vary in the details, and the order is what most of them share.

The day begins at sunrise with the sankalp — the spoken resolve to keep the fast, here for the wellbeing of one’s children. The fast then runs through the day. Many keep it without water; a gentler form with water or fruit is entirely legitimate for anyone pregnant, nursing, unwell or on medication.

During the day the image of Ahoi Mata is prepared — the goddess shown with a sehi, a porcupine, and her cubs — drawn on a wall in older homes, or set up as a printed picture. Beside it goes a karva or kalash, a small pot of water. A silver Syahu — an Ahoi locket, or beads on a thread — is worn or newly threaded by many families; it is a custom of some households rather than all.

In the evening, after sunset, the lamp is lit and the katha — the vrat story — is heard with one’s children present. Then the household waits for the stars. On sighting them, arghya of water is offered to the stars and the fast is broken; halwa, puri and chana are commonly what is offered. Some households wait to offer a further arghya to the moon near midnight, as set out above.

And the karva’s water is not poured away. Many families keep it and sprinkle it around the home at Diwali, a week later.

The katha, honestly attributed

The story told on Ahoi Ashtami is a north-Indian folk vrat-katha — a vow-story, passed on within families — and it exists in several versions. We know of no Puranic source for it that we could cite, and this guide will not invent one. What follows is the shape every version shares.

A woman, repairing her home before Diwali, goes to dig earth, and in digging unknowingly kills a porcupine’s cub. Her sons then die, one after another. On counsel she draws the porcupine and her cubs beside the goddess and keeps the Ashtami fast in penance and prayer. Ahoi Mata is appeased, and her children are restored.

Versions differ in the number of sons and in the details of the counsel and the vow; families tell the one their mothers told. What no version drops is the moral: a harm done unknowingly is still to be atoned, and a mother’s vow carries weight. That is why the porcupine and her cubs sit beside the goddess, and why the children are present for the telling.

A popular etymology reads "Ahoi" as an-hoi — "that which should not have happened". It is a folk reading rather than a derivation, and is offered here as one. And one tradition of Mathura belongs here too, as a tradition and not a rule: at Radha Kund near Govardhan, couples bathe at midnight on Ahoi Ashtami, praying for children.

Honest questions, honest answers

Four come up every year, and one of them has a different answer depending on where you live.

• What if there are no stars — cloud, haze, a lit-up city sky? Break the fast at the twilight time after your listed sunset — roughly twenty-five minutes on — facing east, and offer the arghya in that direction. The stars are there whether or not the sky lets you see them.
• Who should keep a gentler form of the fast? Anyone pregnant, nursing, unwell, or on regular medication. Keep it with water, or with fruit through the day; the sankalp and the evening rite are what the vow consists of, and they are unchanged.
• Should a household abroad keep two days to be safe? No. Pick one of the two readings above — Sunday everywhere on the Indian date, or Monday in Auckland alone by the local rule — and apply it once.
• Is Ahoi Ashtami kept everywhere in India? No. It is a fast of north and north-west India — Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, parts of Gujarat — and much less observed in the south and east. A household outside that belt that has never kept it is not neglecting anything.

Going deeper

For the same fortnight worked through for the fast three days before this one — the moonrise minute, the sargi cut-off, and the London evening where no moonrise falls inside the tithi — the Karva Chauth 2026 guide is the companion to this piece, and the Karva Chauth ritual guide covers the kathas and the arghya itself.

If what interests you is the machinery — why sunset, moonrise and every panchang limb built on them is local rather than national, and how a rule and a calendar date can part company — Finding the Right Muhurat builds that picture from the ground up.

And for the week that follows, the Dhanteras 2026 guide and the Lakshmi Puja 2026 guide carry the same computation into the Diwali days, and the 2026 festival calendar holds the whole season in one place.