When is Sharad Purnima?
The answer
Monday, 26 October 2026
The brightest full moon of the year.
Why that day
- The tithi it is
- Ashwin Shukla Purnima
Read the ordinary way: the day whose SUNRISE this tithi is running at.
And after that
Friday, 15 October 2027
Ashwin Shukla Purnima
Tuesday, 3 October 2028
Ashwin Shukla Purnima
How this date is worked out
A festival is a position, not a date. The lunar month is named by the sidereal sign the Sun stands in at the new moon that opens it, and the tithi is the Moon's distance from the Sun in twelve-degree steps. Both come from the same ephemeris this site casts birth charts with.
North India reckons a month from full moon to full moon, so the dark fortnight carries the next month's name — the same day is Shravana Krishna Tritiya in Pune and Bhadrapada Krishna Tritiya in Delhi. These dates use the northern reckoning, and the tithi is printed above so there is nothing to take on trust.
Why it is kept
The full moon of Ashwin — the one night in the year the moon is complete in all sixteen kalas. Every other purnima has fifteen. This is the night Krishna danced the Maharaas in Vrindavan, and the night Lakshmi walks the earth asking 'ko jagarti' — who is awake. Hence the other name, Kojagari Purnima, and hence the custom of staying up. The kheer is left out in the moonlight because tonight's rays are held to carry amrit.
The story behind it
The merchant's two daughters
A merchant had two daughters. The elder kept the vrat whole; the younger broke it halfway.
The children
The younger one's children died at birth. The pandits said it was the unfinished vrat.
The elder sister's touch
She laid one dead child on a stool, covered it with cloth, and called her sister over. As the elder sat down her skirt brushed the child and it began to cry.
What the vrat did
The sister said: and if I had killed it? No, said the younger — your vrat brought it back. Since then the vrat is kept whole.
The Maharaas
The other story of this night is Vrindavan's. Krishna played the flute, the gopis came, and he divided himself into as many forms as there were gopis — each one certain he was with her alone.
What to keep ready
- Cow's milk, rice and sugar for the kheer
- A silver vessel, or glass if there is none — not copper or brass
- White cloth and white flowers
- An image of Lakshmi and of Indra
- A ghee lamp; the tradition says one with a hundred wicks
- Paan, supari, cardamom, saffron
- A kalash filled with water
How the puja is done
1
Fast and puja
A fast or fruit through the day. Lakshmi and Indra in the evening — Indra because the rains are counted as ending today.
2
The kheer
Kheer of cow's milk with saffron and cardamom, in a silver vessel; silver is held to be the right metal for tonight's light.
3
Out in the moonlight
From about ten at night, once the moon is high, set it out under a net cloth. Directly under the sky — roof or courtyard, nothing overhead.
4
Staying up
Bhajan, kirtan or the Lakshmi Sukta through the night. Kojagari means exactly that: staying awake.
5
Prasad
After midnight, offer the kheer and share it. Those with asthma and breathing trouble take it particularly — that is part of the custom.
What to do
- Keep the kheer fully under open sky — under a tree, a ledge or an overhang and the whole point is gone.
- Use cow's milk, and a silver vessel if you have one.
- If you keep the vrat, keep it whole — the day's entire story is about a broken one.
- Stay up through the night, or at least to midnight; that is the question Lakshmi is asking.
- Cover the kheer with clean net cloth — the light should get in, the dust should not.
What not to do
- Do not set the kheer out in copper or brass; silver, glass or clay.
- No tamasik food, meat or drink today — vrat or no vrat.
- Do not keep the kheer till morning; share it after midnight.
- Sleeping early goes against the day — Kojagari means the waking.
- Do not use stale or packaged milk.
The aarti
Om Jai Lakshmi Mata
ॐ जय लक्ष्मी माता, मैया जय लक्ष्मी माता।
तुमको निशिदिन सेवत, हरि विष्णु विधाता॥
उमा रमा ब्रह्माणी, तुम ही जग माता।
सूर्य चंद्रमा ध्यावत, नारद ऋषि गाता॥
दुर्गा रूप निरंजनि, सुख सम्पत्ति दाता।
जो कोई तुमको ध्यावत, ऋद्धि सिद्धि धन पाता॥
तुम पाताल निवासिनि, तुम ही शुभदाता।
कर्म प्रभाव प्रकाशिनि, भवनिधि की त्राता॥
जिस घर तुम रहती हो, ताँहि में हैं सद्गुण आता।
सब सम्भव हो जाता, मन नहीं घबराता॥
महालक्ष्मी जी की आरती, जो कोई नर गाता।
उर आनंद समाता, पाप उतर जाता॥
The sky has a calendar. So do you.
The same engine reads your own birth moment — every house, every graha, every period with dates.