Vedic astrology guide
Why Hindu Festivals Refuse to Stay on One Date
Most Hindu festivals follow a tithi, a lunar day read at sunrise. They drift against the civil calendar. Sankrantis follow the Sun and barely drift.
By Avinash ChandanPublished Updated
Diwali was 8 November in 2026, 29 October in 2027, and 17 October in 2028. Nothing went wrong. Diwali is Kartik Amavasya, a lunar date. Twelve lunar months are about eleven days short of a solar year, so the festival walks backward through the civil calendar until an extra lunar month, an adhik maas, pushes it forward again.
Makar Sankranti does not do this. It waits for Surya to enter sidereal Makara, which is why it sits in mid-January every year, give or take a day near midnight. People who want every festival on a fixed Gregorian date are asking the Moon to behave like the Sun.
Two clocks are the whole panchang
Jyotish inherited both. A vrata that says “ekadashi” is lunar. A vrata that says “sankranti” is solar. A muhurat uses both, plus nakshatra, yoga and karana. If an app shows only a weekday, it has thrown away the thing that makes the day the festival.
The NRI version of the same drift is why a festival slips a day abroad.
Questions people keep asking
Why isn’t Diwali always in November?
Because it is an amavasya. Lunar dates drift against January-to-December.
Which festivals stay put?
Solar ones: Makar Sankranti, Pongal, Mesha Sankranti. They move by a day at most, when the ingress falls near midnight.