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Tithi length

Why are tithis different lengths?

Every tithi is 12° of the Moon’s lead over the Sun, but the hours it takes vary from about 20 to 27. See a year of tithi lengths and why they vary.

01 · Equal angles, unequal hours

Every tithi is 12°, but the Moon does not gain 12° in a fixed time.

A tithi ends when the Moon’s lead over the Sun grows by 12°. The Moon moves faster near Earth and slower far from it, and the Sun’s speed changes a little through the year, so the same 12° takes anywhere from about 20 to 27 hours.

How long each tithi lasted in 2026A line through the length of each of the 371 complete tithis of 2026. They range from 20.1 hours (Amavasya, ending 15 June 2026) to 26.7 hours (Shukla Tritiya, ending 12 December 2026), averaging 23.58 hours, and rise and fall roughly once a month as the Moon moves between the near and far points of its orbit.LENGTH OF EACH TITHI IN 2026, HOURS20 h22 h24 h26 h28 hJanMarMayJulSepNov24 hours20.1 h26.7 h
Tithi changes from the site’s ephemeris. Each point on the line is one tithi.

A fixed angle at a changing speed

A tithi is defined by angle, not by time: it lasts while the Moon’s lead over the Sun grows by 12°. How long that takes depends on how fast the lead grows, and that speed is not constant.

  • The Moon moves fastest when it is nearest Earth, at perigee, and slowest at apogee, the far point of its elliptical orbit. Its daily motion ranges from about 12° to over 15°.
  • The Sun moves about 1° a day, a little faster in early January, when Earth is nearest the Sun, and a little slower in early July.

The lead grows by the Moon’s speed minus the Sun’s, so it gains from about 10½° to about 14½° a day. At the slow end 12° takes about 27 hours; at the fast end, about 20.

A year of tithis

In 2026 the 371 complete tithis ranged from 20.1 hours, the Amavasya ending on 15 June, to 26.7 hours, Shukla Tritiya ending on 12 December. They averaged 23.58 hours. Across 2026 to 2036 the range is 20.04 to 26.77 hours.

The lengths rise and fall roughly once a month, but not exactly once a lunar month: the Moon returns to perigee every 27.55 days, while tithis repeat every 29.53. So the long and short tithis drift through the paksha over the year. In some months the short tithis fall around the new Moon; a few months later they fall around the full Moon.

What follows from it

Because a tithi can be shorter or longer than a day, some tithis hold no sunrise and others hold two, as how a tithi can be skipped or repeated shows. The same speed change makes one paksha longer than the other, as how the two pakshas divide the month shows.

See today’s tithi with its start and end times on the Delhi Panchang, or explore another topic in Learn.