Lunar months

Chaitra: where the lunar month falls

Chaitra is the lunar month in which the Sun enters sidereal Aries. See its dates for 2026 to 2028 and the full Moon behind its name.

01 · In the lunar year

Chaitra is the lunar month in which the Sun enters Aries.

A lunar month is named from the Sankranti inside it. The new Moon to new Moon month that holds the Sun’s entry into sidereal Aries is Chaitra, the first month of the lunar year.

Lunar year 2026 to 2027Chaitra 19 March 2026 to 17 April 2026 · the Sun enters Aries on 14 April 2026

Sankrantis and new Moons from the site’s ephemeris, sidereal, IST. Months are Amanta, counted from new Moon.

02 · The name in the sky

Chaitra’s full Moon falls in or near Chitra.

The month names come from nakshatras. With the Sun in the month’s sign, the full Moon stands opposite it, near the nakshatra the month is named after.

2 April 2026, 07:41 ISTFull Moon 2 April 2026, the Moon in Hasta; the month is named after Chitra

Positions from the site’s ephemeris at the moment of full Moon, sidereal.

The first month

Chaitra (चैत्र) is the first of the twelve lunar months, after Phalguna and before Vaishakha. Like every lunar month it runs from one new Moon to the next, and it takes its name from the Sankranti that falls inside it: Chaitra is the month in which the Sun enters sidereal Aries. It belongs to Vasanta ritu, one of the six seasons of two months each.

In the Amanta count, from new Moon to new Moon, in IST:

Year	Begins	Ends	Sun enters Aries	Full Moon
2026	19 Mar, 06:53	17 Apr, 17:21	14 Apr, 09:09	2 Apr, 07:41
2027	7 Apr, 05:21	6 May, 16:28	14 Apr, 15:04	21 Apr, 03:57
2028	26 Mar, 10:01	25 Apr, 01:16	13 Apr, 21:20	9 Apr, 15:56

The dates move against the calendar from year to year, by about 19 days later from 2026 to 2027, because twelve lunar months are about 11 days shorter than the solar year; why lunar festival dates change each year explains the drift and the extra months that correct it. Between 2026 and 2034 an extra month, Adhika Chaitra, came before the ordinary one from 15 March 2029 to 14 April 2029; how an extra lunar month fits in explains it.

The name and the full Moon

The month names come from nakshatras. With the Sun in Aries, the full Moon of the month stands opposite it, and Chaitra is named for Chitra, the nakshatra the full Moon falls in or near. In the site’s ephemeris the Moon at the full Moon of Chaitra stood in Hasta in 2026, in Chitra in 2027 and in Chitra in 2028. The match is to within a nakshatra or two rather than exact: the Sun can be anywhere in its sign when the Moon is full, and the Moon stands opposite wherever the Sun is.

In the Purnimanta count

Where months are counted from full Moon, Chaitra runs from the full Moon of Phalguna to its own full Moon. Its waxing half is the same in both counts. The waning half that ends an Amanta Chaitra is called Vaishakha Krishna in the Purnimanta count, and Purnimanta Chaitra begins instead with the waning half of Amanta Phalguna, as why a fortnight can have two month names explains.

Festivals

Of the festivals the site has 2026 pages for, Navratri fell in Chaitra that year, counted by the Amanta month at noon IST on the festival’s main day.

The lunar month guide lists all twelve names. See today’s lunar month on the Delhi Panchang, or explore another topic in Learn.