How we calculate

Astronomy

Positions of the Sun and Moon come from the open-source Astronomy Engine library, which follows the VSOP87 and NOVAS models and is accurate to well under a minute of arc for our purposes. Positions are converted to the sidereal zodiac with the Lahiri (Chitrapaksha) ayanamsa, the standard adopted by the Indian government's calendar reform committee and used by most Indian almanacs.

Reference place

Unless a page says otherwise, sunrise, sunset and daily timings are for Thiruvananthapuram (8.52° N, 76.94° E) in Indian Standard Time. The Rahu Kalam tool recalculates for the place you choose.

Malayalam months

A month begins when the Sun enters the next sidereal sign. Following Kerala practice, if that happens after three-fifths of the daytime (sunrise to sunset) has passed, the month begins the next day. The Kollavarsham year number changes on Chingam 1.

Naal and tithi

The day's naal is the nakshatra prevailing six nazhika (2 h 24 min) after sunrise. The tithi shown is the one prevailing at sunrise; ending times are given where useful.

Festivals

Each festival page shows the rule used, such as "Thiruvonam star in Chingam" for Onam. For 2026 we compared every calculated state festival date with the Kerala Gazette notification, and all of them matched. Where a rule is ambiguous, for instance when a star occurs twice in a month, we leave the date blank until an official source settles it.

Holidays

Holiday lists come from Kerala Gazette notifications. Years that have not been notified are labelled expected, and those pages leave out holidays that depend on moon sighting.

Corrections

If you see a date that differs from your panchangam or an official notice, write to [email protected]. Tell us the page, the date and your source. See our editorial policy.