Karva Chauth 2026 करवा चौथ

Why Karva Chauth is celebrated

Karva Chauth is one of the best loved fasts of married Hindu women in North and North West India. From sunrise to moonrise, women go without food and, in most homes, without water too. This is a nirjala fast, the hardest kind of vrat. They pray for the long life, health and success of their husbands, and the fast ends only after the moon is seen at night and offered water.

The name explains the day. A karva is a small clay pot with a spout, used to offer water during the puja. Chauth means the fourth, as the fast falls on the fourth lunar day after the full moon. It comes about ten days before Diwali, in the season when the harvest is in and homes are getting ready for the festive month.

For many families the day means more than going hungry. It is a day of dressing up, of sitting together with the women of the family and the neighbourhood, and of gifts and blessings from elders. A bride's first Karva Chauth is kept with special care. Today many couples see the fast as a way to show love and commitment. Some husbands fast along with their wives, and some unmarried girls keep it in the hope of a good life partner.

History and story of Karva Chauth

No single scripture lays down the origin of Karva Chauth. Several folk stories are told during the evening puja, and each family may tell them a little differently.

The best known is the story of Veeravati, a queen and the only sister of seven loving brothers. She kept her first Karva Chauth at her parents' home, and by evening she grew faint with hunger and thirst. Her brothers could not bear to see her suffer. They lit a fire behind a tree, or in some tellings held up a mirror, so that it looked as if the moon had risen. Veeravati believed them and broke her fast, and soon news came that her husband had died. In grief she prayed to the goddess and kept every Chauth fast that year with full devotion. According to the story, her husband's life was restored. The tale is told as a warning: the fast must be kept honestly until the real moon rises.

The second story belongs to a devoted wife named Karva. Her husband was seized by a crocodile while bathing in a river. Karva bound the crocodile with a cotton thread and called on Yama, the god of death, to punish the animal and spare her husband. When Yama hesitated, she threatened to curse him, and he gave in. Many families believe the fast takes its name from her.

Some families also link the fast to Draupadi, who is said to have kept it on Krishna's advice for the safety of the Pandavas, and to Savitri, who won back her husband Satyavan from Yama.

A popular explanation ties the custom to farming and soldier families of the north west, where men were often away for long periods. Women of a village fasted together, prayed for their return and supported one another. Whatever its roots, the fast has passed from mother in law to daughter in law for generations.

How Karva Chauth is celebrated

The day begins before dawn with sargi, a meal given by the mother in law. It usually has fruits, dry fruits, sweets, pheni cooked in milk, mathri and parathas. Women eat it before sunrise, and then the nirjala fast begins.

During the day, women avoid heavy housework. Many apply mehendi the night before, wear a red or bridal saree or lehenga and put on full shringar with bangles, sindoor and bindi. In Punjab and Haryana, mothers send a gift called baya, with clothes and sweets, to their married daughters, and the daughters give a baya to their mothers in law.

In the evening, women gather at home, in a temple or in a park. Each one decorates a thali with a karva filled with water, a diya, roli, rice, sweets and a sieve. An elder woman reads the katha of Veeravati and Karva. The women sit in a circle and pass their thalis around seven times while singing traditional songs. Prayers go to Goddess Parvati as Gauri, along with Shiva, Ganesh and Kartikeya.

After moonrise, each woman looks at the moon through a sieve, offers it water from the karva and then looks at her husband's face through the same sieve. The husband gives her the first sip of water and the first bite of food, which ends the fast. She touches the feet of elders for blessings, and a festive dinner follows.

Symbols, food and customs of Karva Chauth

The sieve, or channi, is the picture everyone links with Karva Chauth. A wife first looks at the moon through it and then at her husband's face, and families explain the custom in different ways. Some say the fine mesh softens the moon's light before it falls on the husband, others that it filters out bad luck.

The karva gives the fast its name. It is a small clay pot with a spout, filled with water and sometimes wheat, and its water is offered to the moon. Many women later give it to an elder or a priest along with sweets. A diya burns on every thali, beside roli, rice, sindoor and the sieve.

The moon is the god of the night here. Chandra is linked with calm, long life and the mind, so the whole day waits for him.

Red is the colour of the day, for married life. Mehendi, glass bangles and sindoor are part of the shringar.

Food has its own order. Sargi brings pheni, mathri, fruit and dry fruit before dawn. The fast is broken with water, then a sweet, and dinner often has puri, kadhi, halwa or kheer.

Karva Chauth across India

The fast is most widely kept in Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh. In Rajasthan, women visit the Chauth Mata temple at Chauth ka Barwara in Sawai Madhopur district. In parts of Uttar Pradesh, women draw the moon, the goddess and the karva on a wall and worship the drawing. In Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, women keep a similar fast called Atla Taddi around the same time.

In Uttarakhand, Karva Chauth is widely kept in Dehradun, Haridwar, Rishikesh, Haldwani and the Terai towns. It was less common in remote villages of Garhwal and Kumaon, but has spread there in recent decades. Markets in Dehradun fill with women buying bangles, karvas and puja items, and mehendi artists set up stalls in the days before the fast.

Offices, banks, markets and travel during Karva Chauth

Karva Chauth is a restricted holiday on the central government list for 2026 and 2027, and on the Delhi government's restricted list for 2026. It is not a gazetted holiday, so banks and most offices stay open.

Karva Chauth is a restricted holiday, not a gazetted one. In 2026 it falls on Thursday, 29 October. The central government's restricted list includes it, so central employees can take it as one of their two optional leaves, and the coordination committees in Dehradun, Lucknow and Patna list it too. The Delhi government also keeps it on its restricted list. Kendriya Vidyalayas, the Survey of India, AIIMS Rishikesh, Garhwal University and the Wadia Institute in Dehradun list it as an optional holiday.

No bank holiday is listed for it, so banks and most offices work as usual.

For 2027 the central restricted list already has Karva Chauth on Monday, 18 October. State and bank holiday lists for 2027 are not out yet.

Markets are the busiest part of the day before. Bangle, saree and mehendi stalls stay crowded till late, and sweet shops make extra pheni and mathri. On the evening itself, roads near parks and temples where women gather for puja can be slow, and many people try to reach home before moonrise.