Sarva Pitru Amavasya
When it falls
The date shifts because it tracks the moon, not the Gregorian calendar.
Calculated for India (IST) using precise Panchang astronomy. Dates can shift by a day at locations far to the east or west.
Significance & meaning
Sarva Pitru Amavasya is the new moon (Amavasya) that ends Pitru Paksha, the fortnight Hindus set aside each year to remember and feed the family's departed (the pitru, or ancestors). During the fortnight, families ideally perform the annual rite (shraddha) on the lunar day (tithi) that matches each ancestor's date of death. This final new-moon day is the catch-all: sarva means "all", and the day allows a household to make offerings to every ancestor at once.
Because of this, it carries a practical importance the other days do not. If a family does not know an ancestor's exact death-tithi, missed a day during the fortnight, or simply wants to honour everyone together, the rite is performed today. It is also kept for relatives who died on an Amavasya, and traditionally for the wider line — including those with no living descendants to remember them. In several regions, especially in the east, the same new moon is observed as Mahalaya, the morning that turns attention from the ancestors toward the Goddess and opens the run-up to Durga Puja.
The day is approached with restraint rather than celebration. There is no feasting for its own sake and no festivity; the mood is one of duty, gratitude and remembrance. It closes the period of looking back toward the family's roots, and the very next day the autumn festival season begins with Sharad Navratri.
Rituals & observance
How Sarva Pitru Amavasya is observed:
- The central rite is tarpan — offering water mixed with black sesame seeds (til), and often kusha grass, to the ancestors, usually performed by the eldest son or a male family member, frequently with a priest's guidance.
- Where the full annual rite is done, families perform shraddha and pind daan (offerings of cooked rice balls) for all departed members together, rather than for one ancestor on a single tithi.
- Food is set aside for the ancestors before the family eats; a portion is commonly offered to a cow, a crow, a dog and to fire or a guest, following the traditional shares of the shraddha meal.
- Charity (daan) and feeding others are considered the heart of the day — offering food, clothes or essentials to a priest, to the needy, or to anyone who comes to the door in the ancestors' name.
- Many take a ritual bath (snan) in a river or sacred water at dawn before performing the offerings; riverbanks and ghats draw larger gatherings on this day.
- The rites are kept simple and free of celebration — no new purchases, festivities or auspicious beginnings are undertaken, as the day belongs to remembrance.
Regional variations
How this date is determined
Observed on the new-moon day (Amavasya) of Ashwin (Krishna paksha), reckoned by the afternoon (aparahna). Should the tithi fall across two days, tradition keeps the earlier day (purva-viddha).
Dates are computed to astronomical precision (NASA/JPL ephemeris), in line with traditional panchang.
