Moon Phases Calendar

The moon has phases because it produces no light of its own. It reflects sunlight, and as it orbits Earth every 29.5 days, you see its sunlit half from a changing angle: from thin hilal to full purnima and back.

Half of the moon is always lit by the sun, just as half of Earth is always in daylight. What changes through the month is how much of that lit half happens to face India.

On amavasya (new moon), the moon sits between Earth and the sun. Its bright side points away from us, so the night stays moonless. About 15 days later, on purnima, the moon sits opposite the sun in our sky and you face its fully lit side all night.

Everything in between is a partial view: crescent, half, gibbous. The moon phase today is simply the current angle between the sun, the moon and you, and that angle shifts a little every 24 hours.

One correction, because school diagrams confuse a lot of people: Earth's shadow does not create the phases. Earth's shadow touches the moon only during a chand grahan, at most a few times a year. The regular monthly cycle is pure geometry.

So when a child asks aaj kaun sa chand hai, the honest answer is: the same moon as always, seen from a slightly different angle than yesterday. The live drawn moon at the top of this page shows you tonight's exact angle.

One complete cycle of phases, new moon to new moon, takes 29 days, 12 hours and 44 minutes on average. Astronomers call it the synodic month, and it is why every Hijri month runs either 29 or 30 days, never anything else.

A calendar can't count half days, so Islamic months round the cycle off. The decision happens on the 29th evening: if the hilal (the young crescent) is sighted after sunset, the new month begins. If clouds or geometry hide it, the running month simply completes 30 days. This rule has kept the Hijri calendar in step with the real moon for 14 centuries, and our guide to the 12 Islamic months walks through each one.

One line of astronomy for the curious: the moon actually circles Earth in 27.3 days (the sidereal month), but Earth keeps moving around the sun, so the moon needs about 2 extra days to catch the sun again and repeat the same phase. Hence 29.5.

Twelve lunar months add up to roughly 354 days, about 11 days shorter than the solar year. That's why Ramadan and Eid arrive around 11 days earlier every English year, and why the lunar date today in India never sticks to a fixed English date. The full Hijri calendar shows exactly how the 2 systems slide past each other.

A waxing moon grows fuller each night, moving from amavasya toward purnima; a waning moon shrinks back toward the next amavasya. From India, a waxing moon is lit on the right (western) side, a waning moon on the left.

There's an even easier check: the clock. If you can see the moon in the evening sky after Maghrib, it's waxing. If you spot it hanging pale in the morning sky after sunrise, it's waning.

At India's latitude the young hilal often lies tilted, almost flat like a boat above the western horizon. That's normal for the tropics; the same crescent stands more upright when seen from Europe. It's also why Indian moon-sighting committees look low in the west just after sunset.

The moon rises about 50 minutes later every day, so each phase keeps its own timetable:

So if someone asks aaj konsa chand hai and you see a bright half moon overhead at 7 pm, you can reply without opening any app: first quarter, waxing, roughly the 6th to 8th night of the lunar month.

Apne sheher ka aaj ka exact moonrise time chand kitne baje nikalega page par dekhein — 24 sheher, ya apni location se.

Purnima is the Indian name for the full moon and amavasya for the new moon, about 15 days apart. In Islam, the full-moon days 13, 14 and 15 of every Hijri month are called Ayyam al-Bid, the white days.

The name is literal. On these 3 nights the moon is at or near 100% illumination and the night sky looks washed in white light.

The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ‎ recommended fasting on these 3 days. Companions including Abu Hurairah and Abu Dharr (may Allah be pleased with them) narrated this advice, and the well-known hadith reasoning is that fasting 3 days every month carries the reward of fasting the whole year, since each good deed is multiplied tenfold. These are nafl (voluntary) fasts, not fard, so missing them carries no sin.

To keep them you need the Hijri date, not the English one. Searches for moon date today islamic climb around these days for exactly this reason. Check aaj chand ki tarikh (today's Islamic date) before planning your sehri; it follows India-specific hilal sighting, which can run a day behind Saudi Arabia.

Astronomical new moon poori duniya ke liye ek hi instant par hota hai — lekin Islami mahina new moon se nahi, hilal ke nazar aane se shuru hota hai. Isi farq se mulkon ki dates alag ho jaati hain.

Hilal ka dikhna teen cheezon par depend karta hai: sunset ke waqt chand ki umar, sun aur moon ka angle (elongation), aur aapki location ka horizon. Jo mulk zyada west mein hai wahan suraj baad mein doobta hai — us extra waqt mein chand thoda aur roshan aur horizon se thoda upar ho jata hai. Isi liye Saudi Arabia aur Gulf mein hilal aksar India se ek shaam pehle nazar aa jata hai.

Nateeja: India, Pakistan aur Saudi ki Hijri date mein 1 din ka farq aana bilkul normal hai — ye koi galti nahi, sighting ki geography hai. India mein date Ruet-e-Hilal committees ki asal sighting se tay hoti hai. Aaj ki India wali chand ki tarikh homepage par dekhein, aur committees ke baare mein yahan padhein.

A chand grahan (lunar eclipse) can only happen on purnima, when Earth passes exactly between the sun and the moon and its shadow falls on the lunar surface. A surya grahan (solar eclipse) can only happen on amavasya, when the moon blocks the sun.

Then why isn't there a grahan every month? The moon's orbit is tilted about 5 degrees against Earth's path around the sun. Most months the full moon slips above or below Earth's shadow and nothing happens.

Only when a purnima or amavasya lands near one of the 2 crossing points of the orbits, called nodes, do the sun, Earth and moon line up. That window opens roughly twice a year, which is why eclipses arrive in seasons rather than randomly.

Muslims pray a special congregational prayer during eclipses: Salat al-Khusuf for a chand grahan and Salat al-Kusuf for a solar eclipse. When a solar eclipse coincided with the death of his son Ibrahim, the Prophet ﷺ‎ corrected the rumour that the sky was mourning: the sun and the moon are 2 signs of Allah and do not eclipse for anyone's death or birth. The prayer continues until the eclipse clears.

3 March 2026 — Total Chand Grahan (Blood Moon): IST mein partial phase shaam 3:20 se 6:48 baje tak; totality 4:34–5:33 PM. India mein chand grahan ke dauran hi ugta hai — North-East India aur Andaman-Nicobar mein moonrise totality ke andar hota hai, isliye wahan red “blood moon” ka aakhri hissa dikha. Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai jaise zyada-tar shehron mein moonrise totality ke baad hua, isliye wahan sirf aakhri ~20–30 minute ka partial grahan dikha.

28 August 2026 — Partial Chand Grahan: chand ke diameter ka lagbhag 93% hissa (umbral magnitude 0.93) Earth ki shadow mein jayega — lekin iski IST timing subah 6:53 baje se dopahar 12:31 baje tak hai, jab India mein din hoga aur chand horizon ke neeche. Isliye ye grahan India mein nahi dikhega. (Ye Shravana Purnima / Raksha Bandhan wala full moon hai — subah 9:48 baje IST — isliye news mein iski charcha zyada milegi; India ke liye saaf jawab yahi hai: nahi dikhega.)

Isi mahine 12 August 2026 ka total surya grahan (totality Iceland–Greenland–Spain) bhi India mein nahi dikhega — uska poora window IST raat ~9:04 PM se 1:28 AM ka hai, jab India mein raat hoti hai. Yaad rahe: surya grahan hamesha amavasya ko hota hai aur chand grahan hamesha purnima ko.

A supermoon is a purnima that falls when the moon is at perigee, its closest point to Earth at roughly 357,000 km. It appears up to 14% wider and about 30% brighter than a full moon at its farthest point.

In practice, 14% is hard to judge by eye. You'd need 2 photos taken with the same lens, weeks apart, to see the size difference clearly. The extra brightness is easier to feel on a clear night, especially away from city lights.

A Blue Moon is a calendar quirk: the second purnima inside one English month. Phases repeat every 29.5 days and most months have 30 or 31, so occasionally 2 full moons squeeze into 1 month. It happens about once every 2.5 to 3 years, and the moon's colour doesn't change at all.

A Blood Moon is the moon during a total chand grahan. Earth blocks direct sunlight, but our atmosphere bends the red portion of that light into the shadow, so the moon glows copper-red instead of going black. It's the same physics that turns Indian sunsets red.

Is saal ke sabse khaas chand ke din — sab IST ke hisaab se, guzre hue mark kiye hue:

• 3 January — Wolf Supermoon (Pausha Purnima) — guzar chuka.
• 3 March — Total Chand Grahan (Blood Moon) — NE India aur Andaman mein totality ka aakhri hissa moonrise par dikha; baaki India mein sirf partial. Guzar chuka.
• 31 May — Blue Moon — May ka doosra full moon (pehla 1 May ko tha). Guzar chuka. Agla monthly Blue Moon 31 December 2028 ko aayega (seasonal definition wala pehle, 20 May 2027 ko).
• 28 August — Partial Chand Grahan — India mein nahi dikhega; detail upar grahan section mein.
• 24 November — Beaver Supermoon (Kartika Purnima).
• 24 December — Cold Supermoon — saal ka sabse paas (~3,56,700 km) aur sabse bright full moon.

Supermoon ka matlab: full moon jo perigee (Earth ke sabse paas point) ke aas-paas ho. Aisa chand micromoon (apogee wale full moon) ke muqable ~14% bada aur ~30% zyada bright dikh sakta hai — average full moon se farq isse kam hota hai. Supermoon ki koi official definition nahi hai, isliye alag-alag lists mein ek-do dates ka farq mil sakta hai.

The moon's gravity pulls Earth's oceans toward it, raising 2 tidal bulges. As Earth rotates through them, most Indian coasts get 2 high tides and 2 low tides roughly every 24 hours and 50 minutes.

The sun pulls too, at a bit less than half the moon's strength. On purnima and amavasya the sun and moon pull in a straight line and their effects stack up: these are spring tides, the highest highs and lowest lows of the month. On the quarter moons they pull at right angles and partly cancel out, producing weak neap tides.

You can see the scale on India's own coastline. The Gulf of Khambhat in Gujarat records tidal ranges above 10 metres on spring-tide days, among the highest in Asia, while stretches of the Tamil Nadu coast move barely 1 metre. Fishermen from Mumbai to Digha plan their launches around the same 29.5-day rhythm this whole page describes.

Is page ke saare new moon, full moon aur quarter times Meeus astronomical algorithms (Jean Meeus, Astronomical Algorithms, ch. 49) se IST ke liye calculate hote hain, aur published ephemeris data se verify kiye gaye hain — exact times ±2 minute ke andar milte hain. Upar wala bada chand bhi decorative nahi hai: uski shape asli terminator geometry se banti hai, isliye har din ka drawn moon scientifically sahi hota hai.

Page har roz automatically rebuild hota hai taaki “aaj kaun sa chand hai” ka jawab hamesha aaj ka rahe. Kahin koi galti dikhe to contact page par zaroor batayein — accuracy is site ki buniyad hai.

Neeche 2026 ke har amavasya (new moon) aur har purnima (full moon) ki exact date aur IST time di gayi hai — agla event gold highlight aur "Agla" tag ke saath dikha hai, guzre hue din halke hain.

Kabhi-kabhi ek hi calendar month mein do full moon aa jate hain — doosre ko Blue Moon kehte hain. Table mein aise din tag ke saath mark hain, grahan aur supermoon wale din bhi.

Naam column mein Hindu mahine ke naam (Pausha, Magha, Shravana…) North-Indian Purnimanta calendar ke hisaab se hain, aur English naam (Wolf Moon, Sturgeon Moon…) American folk names hain jo ab Indian media bhi use karta hai. Harvest Moon woh full moon hai jo September equinox ke sabse kareeb ho — zyada-tar September mein, kabhi October mein.

Panchang ki date aur is table ki date mein farq kyun?

Aksar log dekhte hain ki panchang websites purnima ya amavasya ki date ek din pehle dikhati hain. Wajah simple hai: panchang tithi ka window batata hai — purnima tithi lagbhag ek din chalti hai aur uska ant hi astronomical full moon ka exact instant hota hai. Ye table wahi exact instant (IST) dikhati hai. Dono sahi hain, bas naapne ka tareeqa alag hai. Vrat ya tyohar ki date ke liye apna panchang ya local tradition follow karein.

Amavasya ke baad naya Islami mahina

Amavasya hi astronomical new moon hai. Naya Islami (Hijri) mahina isi ke 1–2 din baad shuru hota hai, jab pehli shaam hilal (baareek chand) aankh se nazar aata hai. Isi liye amavasya ki date aur Islami mahine ki 1 tarikh kabhi ek din nahi hoti. Aaj ki chand ki tarikh ke liye homepage, mahine ki shuruaat ke liye Chand Raat, aur poore saal ke mahine Hijri Calendar par dekhein.