If you are deciding which tithi applies on Friday, September 25, the answer depends on when you will perform the puja or sankalpa. Most of the civil day falls under Shukla Paksha Chaturdashi, but the tithi changes late at night.
For most regions, Shukla Paksha Chaturdashi continues until 10:20 PM, after which Purnima begins. That boundary is the central fact to put in your calendar.
September 25 Panchang at a glance
- Gregorian date: Friday, September 25, 2026
- Paksha: Shukla Paksha, the waxing or light half of the lunar cycle
- Tithi before 10:20 PM: Chaturdashi, the fourteenth tithi
- Tithi after 10:20 PM: Purnima, the full-moon tithi
- Practical reading: Treat Friday’s daytime and most of its evening as Chaturdashi; use Purnima only after the transition.
Which tithi should you use for a puja or sankalpa?
A Hindu lunar date does not necessarily begin at midnight. One civil date can therefore contain parts of two tithis, as September 25 does. The relevant tithi is ordinarily the one prevailing at the time required by the observance or by your sampradaya’s rule.
If your worship begins before 10:20 PM, use Shukla Paksha Chaturdashi when identifying the day’s tithi. If it begins after 10:20 PM, Purnima is in effect. Do not mark the whole of Friday as Purnima merely because the full-moon tithi starts before midnight.
The same caution works in the other direction: a late-night Purnima transition does not automatically decide when a Purnima vrata, temple observance, or family practice should be kept. Some observances depend on the tithi at a specified part of the day rather than on whether it appears anywhere within the civil date. Follow the rule used by your temple, guru-parampara, or established household calendar.
How to plan around the 10:20 PM transition
- Write down the intended start time. A general plan such as “Friday evening” is not precise enough when the tithi changes that night.
- Compare that time with 10:20 PM. Before the boundary, plan on Chaturdashi. After it, plan on Purnima.
- Leave a margin near the cutoff. If the ritual could begin close to 10:20 PM, do not rely on a casual estimate or an unlabelled calendar reminder.
- Confirm the calculation for your location. Panchang timings are location-sensitive. Check a city-specific calendar before a timed vrata, temple visit, or formal sankalpa, particularly if you live outside the region for which your usual calendar was prepared.
- Apply the observance rule after confirming the tithi. The transition time tells you which tithi is running; it does not by itself tell you which day a particular tradition assigns to an observance.
What the tithi change does not tell you
The 10:20 PM time is a tithi boundary, not a general declaration that the period before or after it is auspicious. Do not treat it as a muhurta.
A complete daily Panchang may also require local sunrise and sunset, nakshatra, yoga, karana, moonrise, and time windows used for muhurta decisions. None of those values can be inferred safely from the Chaturdashi-to-Purnima transition alone. If you need to schedule a wedding, griha pravesh, major purchase, journey, or another muhurta-dependent act, obtain the full location-specific Panchang rather than making the decision from the tithi line.
This distinction prevents a common planning error: the tithi answers “which lunar day is operating?” It does not answer every question about whether a particular minute is suitable for a particular act.
A clear calendar entry you can use
Enter the day in your personal calendar this way: Friday, September 25, 2026 — Shukla Paksha Chaturdashi until 10:20 PM; Purnima thereafter. Confirm locally before a time-sensitive observance.
If your plans fall comfortably before the boundary, Chaturdashi is the working tithi. If they fall after it—or close enough that a delay could cross it—check your city-specific Panchang and the rule of the observance before proceeding.
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