The complete Hindu calendar: every festival, vrat and upavas.
Festival dates are not a lookup table. Each one depends on which tithi is current at a particular moment of the day, at a particular place, under classical rules for skipped and repeated tithis and the extra month. LifeAstroAPI encodes those rules, computes every date from the Sun and Moon for the city you ask about, and checks the result against printed panchangs.
Entry counts are for New Delhi and Chennai in 2027 and vary slightly by city and year.
Real examples from the API
All four come straight from the API output for 2027. Open the linked pages to check them.
New Delhi: Pausha Putrada Ekadashi is on 18 January for smarta observers and on 19 January for Vaishnava (and Gauna) observers, with the parana window on the morning of 19 January. See the list
New Delhi, 19 January: Shukla Ekadashi ends at 07:50 and Dwadashi ends at 04:41 the next morning, before sunrise. No civil day is named Dwadashi (kshaya), and 20 January opens in Trayodashi. See the month
New Delhi: Krishna Chaturthi runs from 08:10 on 25 January to 06:00 on 26 January, so no sunrise falls in it. Sakat Chauth is still on 25 January, because Chaturthi is current at that evening's moonrise (21:12). See the list
Makara Sankranti is on 15 January in New Delhi but 14 January in Toronto, and Jaya Ekadashi on 17 February in New Delhi but 16 February in Toronto, because the Sun's ingress and the tithi at sunrise fall on different local days. See Toronto
Each festival at the moment its rule demands
Checking only the tithi at sunrise puts many festivals on the wrong day. The engine evaluates each one at its classical observance time:
| Moment | When | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Udaya (sunrise) | The tithi at local sunrise | Most vrats and tithi festivals |
| Arunodaya (pre-dawn) | The hours just before sunrise | Narak Chaturdashi abhyanga snan, Vaishnava Ekadashi (Dashami-viddha check) |
| Purvahna (forenoon) | First part of the day | Akshaya Tritiya |
| Madhyahna (midday) | Middle fifth of the day | Rama Navami |
| Aparahna (afternoon) | Fourth fifth of the day | Dussehra / Vijayadashami, Mahalaya and Shraddha tithis |
| Pradosh (evening twilight) | After sunset | Pradosh Vrat, Holika Dahan, Diwali Lakshmi Puja |
| Nishita (midnight) | Around local midnight | Maha Shivaratri, Janmashtami |
| Moonrise | Local moonrise time | Karwa Chauth, Sankashti Chaturthi |
Because these moments are local, the same festival can correctly fall on different days in Delhi, London and Toronto. Every response includes the window that decided the date, such as the pradosh kaal or the moonrise time, so your users can see why.
Every vrat, for a whole year, in one call
/v1/festivals/vrat returns every occurrence of a family for a year at a location:
- • Ekadashi, with smarta, Vaishnava and Gauna days and the parana window
- • Pradosh Vrat, named by weekday (Soma, Bhauma, Shani …)
- • Sankashti Chaturthi, with local moonrise and the monthly name
- • Vinayaka Chaturthi
- • Purnima, with Satyanarayana Puja
- • Amavasya, with Somvati, Shani, Darsha and Anvadhan
- • Chandra Darshana, by crescent visibility
- • Masik Shivaratri
- • Masik Durgashtami
- • Kalashtami
- • Skanda Shashthi
- • Masik Karthigai
- • Shraddha and Pitru Paksha tithis
- • Janmashtami, smarta and ISKCON
- • All 12 Sankrantis
- • Bhanu Saptami
- • Solar and lunar eclipses, with local timings and sutak
The rules that make dates right
A tithi that skips a sunrise is still observed on the right day; a tithi that covers two sunrises is resolved by each festival’s rule (first day for most, second for Ekadashi and Janmashtami).
Detected from the Sun and Moon, not from a table. Regular festivals move to the nija month, while Padmini and Parama Ekadashi and Vibhuvana Sankashti appear in the adhik month.
Smarta and Vaishnava days are computed separately, with the Gauna day when they differ, and every Ekadashi carries its parana (fast-breaking) window for the next morning.
The thread-tying window avoids Bhadra (Vishti karana), as the classical rule requires.
Sankrantis that fall after sunset or shortly before sunrise are moved to the correct civil day, and each carries the exact moment of the Sun’s ingress.
The first crescent is dated by a visibility model (Moon’s age, elongation and altitude after sunset), so the day matches when the Moon can actually be seen.
Each eclipse comes with local first contact, maximum and last contact, visibility from your location, and sutak timings.
Regional traditions, not just North India
Month names follow purnimanta or amanta on request, and regional observances are built in. A few examples:
| Tamil | Aadi Perukku, Aadi Pooram, Aadi Amavasai, Thai Poosam, Panguni Uthiram |
|---|---|
| Kerala | Onam (Uthradam, Thiruvonam, Avittam), Vishu |
| Telugu and Kannada | Ugadi, Bathukamma, Atla Tadde, Bheemana Amavasya, Basava Jayanti |
| Marathi | Gudi Padwa, Bail Pola |
| Bengali and Odia | Bhai Phonta, Kojagori Lakshmi Puja, Maha Shashthi, Bahuda Yatra |
| Gujarati and North Indian | Bachha Baras, Bali Pratipada, Basoda, Karwa Chauth, Ahoi Ashtami |
Names come back in English and Hindi, and in other Indian languages with locale.
Beyond festivals
- The printed calendar page:
/v1/panchang/monthly?include=sheetreturns a whole month with tithi, nakshatra and Moon-sign end times, moonrise, Hindu month, Vikram and Shaka samvat, and the festivals of each day. - Calendar facts: adhik maas check, samvatsara name, ritu, and the year's equinoxes and solstices with Uttarayana and Dakshinayana.
- Shraddha: all sixteen Pitru Paksha tithis plus Bharani, Matri Navami and Magha shraddha.
Frequently asked questions
How many festivals and vrats does the API cover?
The engine has 335 festival and observance rules. For a single city it produces about 720 dated entries a year, roughly 460 distinct named festivals, vrats, jayantis, Sankrantis and eclipses.
Are the dates correct for cities outside India?
Yes. Every date is computed for the latitude, longitude and timezone you pass. The engine reproduces every supported entry of the printed panchang calendars of 14 cities, including London, Toronto, Sydney, Singapore and San Francisco.
How do I get every Ekadashi of the year?
Call /v1/festivals/vrat with type=ekadashi, the year and your location. Each entry includes the smarta and Vaishnava day where they differ and the parana window.
See the verification method, browse the free Hindu calendar for 22 cities, or read about real-time panchang and muhurta.
Building an astrology app? 1,500 free API credits a month, no card
Every Ekadashi of 2027, for your city
One call, with parana windows and Hindi names:
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $LIFEASTRO_API_KEY" \
"https://api.lifeastroapi.com/v1/festivals/vrat?year=2027&type=ekadashi&lat=28.6139&lon=77.209&tz=Asia/Kolkata"