Lunar months

Kartika: where the lunar month falls

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

01 · In the lunar year

Kartika is the lunar month in which the Sun enters Scorpio.

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 Scorpio is Kartika, the eighth month of the lunar year.

Lunar year 2026 to 2027Kartika 9 November 2026 to 9 December 2026 · the Sun enters Scorpio on 16 November 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

Kartika’s full Moon falls in or near Krittika.

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.

24 November 2026, 20:23 ISTFull Moon 24 November 2026, the Moon in Krittika; the month is named after Krittika

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

The eighth month

Kartika (कार्तिक) is the eighth of the twelve lunar months, after Ashwin and before Margashirsha. 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: Kartika is the month in which the Sun enters sidereal Scorpio. It belongs to Sharad 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 Scorpio	Full Moon
2026	9 Nov, 12:32	9 Dec, 06:21	16 Nov, 19:20	24 Nov, 20:23
2027	29 Oct, 19:06	28 Nov, 08:54	17 Nov, 01:35	14 Nov, 08:55
2028	18 Oct, 08:26	16 Nov, 18:48	16 Nov, 07:38	2 Nov, 14:47

The dates move against the calendar from year to year, by about 11 days earlier 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.

The name and the full Moon

The month names come from nakshatras. With the Sun in Scorpio, the full Moon of the month stands opposite it, and Kartika is named for Krittika, the nakshatra the full Moon falls in or near. In the site’s ephemeris the Moon at the full Moon of Kartika stood in Krittika in 2026, in Krittika in 2027 and in Bharani 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, Kartika runs from the full Moon of Ashwin to its own full Moon. Its waxing half is the same in both counts. The waning half that ends an Amanta Kartika is called Margashirsha Krishna in the Purnimanta count, and Purnimanta Kartika begins instead with the waning half of Amanta Ashwin, as why a fortnight can have two month names explains.

Festivals

Of the festivals the site has 2026 pages for, Bhai Dooj, Chhath Puja and Guru Nanak Jayanti fell in Kartika 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.