Celebrate Your Nakshatra Birthday.

Your janma nakshatra (birth star) is the nakshatra the Moon was in at the moment you were born. Your nakshatra birthday is the day each year — in the same solar month you were born — when the Moon returns to that nakshatra at sunrise. Many families in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka and Andhra celebrate this day with an archana or abhishekam in the birthday person's name.

A tithi birthday falls on the same lunar day (tithi) in the same lunar month (masa) as your birth — for example Karthika Shukla Panchami. This is the traditional "puttina roju" followed by many Telugu and North Indian families. Because the lunar calendar is about 11 days shorter than the solar year, the date moves every year.

The Moon completes its cycle through the 27 nakshatras in about 27.3 days and the Hindu lunar year is about 354 days long, so the day the Moon returns to your birth star shifts against the English calendar every year.

Yes. Leave the time blank. We calculate for midday, and if the Moon changed nakshatra on your birth date we show both possibilities. Pick the hour and minute for an exact nakshatra and lagna.

We compute the Sun and Moon positions astronomically using the Lahiri (Chitrapaksha) ayanamsa — the same standard used by most Indian panchangams. The birth is taken in Indian Standard Time. Search your city so the lagna and the sunrise dates use that place. Some families follow slightly different rules when a nakshatra or tithi spans two sunrises, so please check with your family priest for important ceremonies.

Traditionally people visit a temple early in the morning, offer an archana or abhishekam in their name and gotra, light a ghee deepam, donate food (annadanam) and seek blessings from elders. Worshipping the deity of your nakshatra is considered especially auspicious.