Today in plain words

Today is Chaturthi (चतुर्थी), Shukla paksha — the moon's waxing fortnight. The moon stands in Swati (pada 1), the yoga is Indra and the karana is Vishti. It is Tuesday · Mangalavara, sun up at 05:49. This is the udaya reckoning — the sky as it stood at sunrise — so it names the whole day without flipping by evening. No public holidays fall in the visible month — enjoy the ordinary days.

What a panchang actually is

Panchang means "five limbs", and a traditional almanac describes every day with exactly five: tithi (the lunar day), vaara (weekday), nakshatra (which of the 27 star-groups the moon sits in), yoga (a combined sun-moon angle with 27 named periods), and karana (half a tithi — the shortest limb, changing roughly twice a day). Festivals, fasts, weddings and bratabandhas are all scheduled in this vocabulary, which is why two families can argue about a date while both being technically right about different limbs.

Tithi and paksha, simply

The moon laps the sun roughly every 29.5 days, and that lap is cut into 30 tithis of 12 degrees each. The bright half — new moon to full moon — is Shukla paksha, the waxing fortnight; the dark half back to new moon is Krishna paksha. Pratipada is day one of a fortnight, Purnima is full moon, Amavasya (Aunsi) is new moon. Because a tithi runs 19–26 hours rather than exactly a day, it regularly starts or ends mid-afternoon — which is precisely why this page pins each date to its sunrise tithi instead of the current moment.

Nakshatra, yoga, karana, vaara

If tithi is the headline, these are the fine print priests actually check. The nakshatra places the moon among 27 lunar mansions — Ashwini through Revati — each split into four quarters (padas), which is why some names feel astrologically personal. Yoga here has nothing to do with exercise: it's one of 27 sun-moon longitude sums, with famously inauspicious ones like Vyatipata that elders avoid for new beginnings. Karana halves each tithi and flips about twice daily — the fastest-moving limb on this page. And vaara is simply the weekday, counted sunrise to sunrise the old way. You don't need to memorize any of this to use the calendar; just know which limb a pandit is asking about when they ask.

How to use this calendar

Tap any date in the month grid for its tithi, nakshatra and yoga — the amber dot marks public holidays, and the red highlight is always today in Nepal time. The festival list below the calendar counts down the big occasions with both BS and AD dates. And a practical note: dates more than a few weeks out can shift by a day when official announcements land, so treat the far future as planning-grade, not promise-grade.

Quick answers

What is tithi?

Tithi is the lunar day — the moon's position relative to the sun, sliced into 30 parts per lunar month. Festivals, fasts and wedding dates all hang on tithis, not on calendar dates, which is why Dashain lands on a different Gregorian date every year.

What tithi is it today?

Today's udaya tithi (the tithi prevailing at sunrise, which names the whole day) is Chaturthi (चतुर्थी), Shukla paksha. It holds for the full civil day on this page — no mid-day flips.

What is udaya tithi and why does this page use it?

Udaya tithi means 'the tithi at sunrise'. Since a tithi lasts roughly 19–26 hours, it almost always changes mid-day — a moment-based reading would show one tithi in the morning and another by evening. The official Nepali calendar assigns each date the tithi prevailing at its sunrise, and so does this page, so the top strip and the cards can never disagree.

What are nakshatra, yoga, karana and vaara?

The five limbs of the panchang: tithi (lunar day), vaara (weekday), nakshatra (the moon's mansion among 27 star-groups), yoga (a sun-moon angle period), and karana (half a tithi). Together they are the traditional vocabulary for describing any day's sky — this page shows all five for today.

Why do different calendars sometimes show different tithis?

Three honest reasons: different instants (morning vs evening readings straddle a mid-day flip), different conventions (sunrise vs moment tithi), and different longitudes (sunrise in Kathmandu isn't sunrise in Delhi). When comparing, always check the convention and the time, not just the name.

Is this the official Nepali calendar?

No — this is an astronomical computation, cross-checked against the open-source Project Parva engine. The official calendar is published by Nepal's Panchanga Nirnayak Samiti. For weddings, bratabandhas and anything ritual, confirm with your family priest.