Sharad Purnima 2026: Date, Moonrise Time and Kheer Vidhi

When Is Sharad Purnima 2026?

Sharad Purnima 2026 falls on Sunday, 25 October. It is the Purnima of Ashwina, the full moon of the sharad season, and it is kept as a night rather than as a morning.

In Surat the moon rises at 05:26 PM. The Purnima tithi begins at 11:55 AM on 25 October and ends at 09:41 AM on 26 October.

Those three figures settle most of the practical questions. The moon is up early, the tithi covers the whole night, and it is still running when the kheer is brought in the next morning.

Sharad Purnima 2026 Date, Tithi and Moonrise

Those figures are two different kinds of number, and it is worth knowing which is which. The tithi begins and ends at single astronomical moments, so 11:55 AM and 09:41 AM read the same across the country in IST. Moonrise is local. The 05:26 PM above is the Surat figure, and a household in another city should take moonrise from a Panchang set to its own location.

One thing follows from the tithi start that catches people out. Purnima does not begin until 11:55 AM on the 25th, so the morning of that day is still Chaturdashi. The observance opens after midday and belongs to the evening and the night.

Why the Night of 25 October and Not the 26th

The tithi spans two calendar dates, which is enough on its own to make a household check twice.

What decides the date here is midnight. The Kojagara Lakshmi puja is kept when the Purnima is nishitha-vyapini, meaning the tithi is prevailing at the middle of the night, and the same night is what the moon observance needs. On 25 October the Purnima begins at 11:55 AM and runs unbroken until 09:41 AM the next day, so it covers the whole of that night, midnight included. The night of the 25th qualifies on every count.

The night of the 26th does not. By then the tithi has been over since 09:41 AM that morning. A calendar showing 26 October is showing you the date the tithi ends on, not a second night.

That 09:41 AM ending is useful in itself. The vessel that stood out through the night is brought in and the prasad shared on the morning of the 26th while the Purnima is still running, which is exactly what the practice asks for.

The Kheer Left Out Under the Moon

This is the practice everyone knows the night by, and it is the reason the date gets searched for at all.

Kheer is cooked with rice and milk, offered to the moon once it is up, and left standing in the open through the night. In the morning it is taken as prasad and shared in the household. Milk and rice are used because white is the colour that belongs to the moon, and many families keep the kheer in a silver vessel for the same reason.

What the tradition holds about this night is that the moon stands at its fullest and its light is at its most auspicious, and the tradition speaks of that light as amrit. The kheer is set out so that it stands in that light through the whole of the night, and is shared in the morning as prasad. That is the belief the practice rests on.

The offering itself is simple. The kheer is placed before the moon after the evening puja, a lamp is lit beside it, and the family takes darshan of the moon before the vessel is left out.

How Families Keep the Kheer Through the Night

The practical arrangement varies more than most people expect, and no single form is the correct one. The kheer itself is chiefly a North Indian form of the night. Maharashtra keeps masala doodh on Kojagiri, Bengal keeps Lokkhi Pujo with its own bhog, and Gujarat has its own dudh poha, so what stands under the moon depends on where the household is from.

• Where it stands. A terrace, a balcony, an open courtyard, anywhere the moon is actually visible. An open sky matters more than the exact spot.
• Covered or open. Most households cover the vessel with a thin muslin or a fine cloth, which keeps it under the moon without leaving it fully exposed. Some keep it open.
• How long. In Surat the moon is up from 05:26 PM, so the kheer can go out early and stay out until morning. Households that would rather not leave milk standing overnight make the offering, keep the vessel out during the puja and the vigil, and bring it in later. The offering is understood to have been made either way.
• When it is taken. The morning of 26 October. The Purnima runs until 09:41 AM, so an early morning prasad sits inside the tithi.

Which arrangement a household keeps is its own decision, and there is no fault in the lighter one.

Kojagara Puja and the Night That Stays Awake

The same night carries a Lakshmi puja, and the name explains the practice better than any description of it could.

Kojagara comes from ko jagarti, who is awake. Goddess Lakshmi is said to move through the world on this night asking that question, and the night is therefore kept with a vigil rather than with sleep. Lamps are lit and left burning, the house is cleaned and the entrance kept open and lit, and the household sits up with singing, the katha, or in many families a game of chausar or cards that keeps everyone awake until late.

This is the Lakshmi puja of the Ashwina Purnima, kept as Kojagiri Purnima in Maharashtra and best known as Kojagari Lakshmi Puja in Bengal and eastern India. Elsewhere the Lakshmi association sits quietly alongside the moon observance, and a household keeping the kheer through the night is keeping the vigil whether or not it uses the name.

Sharad Purnima Puja Vidhi

Most households keep this puja themselves. The sequence below is the common household form.

1. Bathe and wear clean clothes in the afternoon, after the Purnima has begun at 11:55 AM, and take the sankalp for the vrat where one is being kept.
2. Clean the puja space and the terrace or courtyard where the kheer will stand, and lay a clean cloth on the chowki.
3. Establish the kalasha, and place the image of Goddess Lakshmi where the Kojagara puja is being kept.
4. Light the deep and offer chandan, kumkum, akshat, flowers and dhoop.
5. Cook the kheer with rice, milk, ghee, sugar and dry fruit, keeping it aside for the offering.
6. After moonrise, from 05:26 PM in Surat, take darshan of the moon, offer arghya with water, and place the kheer before it.
7. Read or hear the vrat katha, and perform the aarti.
8. Leave the kheer standing under the open sky, with a lamp kept lit nearby.
9. Keep the vigil through the night, with bhajan, katha or the family sitting together.
10. In the morning of 26 October, before the tithi ends at 09:41 AM, offer the kheer to the deity, then share it as prasad in the household.

Where a fuller Kojagara Lakshmi puja is wanted, with the complete sankalp and the sixteen upacharas, a pandit is generally called for the evening.

Fasting on Sharad Purnima

Where a vrat is kept, it runs from the sankalp in the afternoon until the puja and the katha are done. Most households keep a phalahar form on fruit and milk, and many keep no fast at all and simply hold the puja and the vigil. Practice follows the family rather than any single rule, so keep the lighter form or offer the puja without fasting if a full fast does not suit you.

Sharad Purnima Puja Samagri

The kheer needs cooking and the terrace needs preparing, so gather this the day before.

• Rice, full cream milk, ghee, sugar, and the dry fruit your household adds
• A silver or clean metal vessel for the kheer, and a fine cloth to cover it
• Chowki with a clean cloth, and an image of Goddess Lakshmi where the Kojagara puja is kept
• Kalasha with water, mango leaves and a coconut
• Deep, ghee or oil, wicks, dhoop and camphor
• Chandan, kumkum, haldi, akshat and abir
• Fresh flowers, a garland and tulsi
• A vessel of water for the arghya to the moon
• Paan, supari, moli, fruit and dakshina

Your pandit may add items your family tradition keeps, so confirm the list a few days ahead.

The Vrat Katha of the Two Sisters

The katha commonly read for the Sharad Purnima vrat is the story of two sisters, and it is short.

Both sisters kept the Purnima vrat. The elder kept it in full, each month and to its completion. The younger began it and left it incomplete. In time loss came to the younger sister’s household, and what she had was not held. She went to her elder sister, and it was through the merit of the vrat the elder sister had kept properly that what had been lost was restored.

The point of the story is not the loss but the completion. A vrat is not a thing you begin, it is a thing you finish, and a night kept awake from end to end is a plain illustration of that.

Families tell this katha in more than one form and with different details, so read the version your household keeps, or ask your pandit for the one followed in your tradition.

Sharad Poonam in Gujarat and Surat

In Gujarat the night is Sharad Poonam, and it is one of the more social nights of the calendar rather than a quiet one.

Garba is kept on this night in many neighbourhoods, coming only days after the Navratri season and often running late, which fits a night the tradition asks you to stay awake for anyway. Households share dudh poha, flattened rice in milk, alongside or in place of the kheer, and and the sharing often runs across a building or a street.

The night also carries the association with Krishna’s raas on the Sharad Purnima, and in Gujarat the moon, the milk and the all night singing sit together naturally.

Ashwina Purnima and the Satyanarayan Vrat

25 October is also a Satyanarayan Vrat date, because the vrat is kept on every Purnima of the year.

That makes the day a natural one to combine. The Purnima begins at 11:55 AM, so the Satyanarayan katha is held in the afternoon or the evening rather than the morning, and it sits comfortably before the moon offering and the vigil that follow it. A Surat household can keep exactly this order, with the katha and the aarti done by early evening and the kheer going out afterwards.

The complete Purnima calendar, with the tithi window for every month of 2026 and 2027, is in our guide to the Satyanarayan Vrat dates, and the full sequence of the puja is set out in the Satyanarayan Katha guide. Our Choghadiya timings give the auspicious windows across the day, and choosing a shubh muhurat explains how those windows are worked out.

Booking a Pandit for Sharad Purnima

The household form of this observance needs no pandit. The kheer, the arghya to the moon and the vigil are all within reach of a family that has the samagri ready and the katha to hand.

A pandit is called for the fuller occasions. Where the Kojagara Lakshmi puja is being kept in its complete form with the sankalp and the sixteen upacharas. Where a Satyanarayan katha is being held on the same Ashwina Purnima. And where a household is beginning a Purnima vrat as a regular practice and wants the first one taken properly, which is a common reason families call on this particular night.

Pandit Ramkishan Joshi performs Kojagara Lakshmi puja and Satyanarayan katha at homes across Surat and the surrounding areas, and can confirm the moonrise and the evening window for your own location.

Festival dates are usually taken about a month in advance, and 25 October carries both the Satyanarayan katha and the Kojagara puja, which want the same few hours after sunset. To arrange either, get in touch with your location and the form you want to keep, and the samagri list will be shared beforehand.