Festival date accuracy: OmAstroVedic vs Drik Panchang

How the dates are computed

Every date is derived at run time from Swiss Ephemeris astronomical positions at the Lahiri sidereal ayanamsha, for the reference coordinates of New Delhi (28.61° N, 77.21° E, IST). Tithi, nakshatra, sunrise and the Bhadra (Vishti karana) windows are computed to the minute, and the classical festival rules are applied directly — Diwali on Kartik Amavasya at pradosha, Holika Dahan on Phalguna Purnima avoiding Bhadra, Chhath on Kartik Shukla Shashthi, and so on.

There is no override table. The same rules run for every year, which is exactly why the results are reproducible and auditable: any date below can be re-derived from first principles rather than looked up. Verified against drikpanchang.com, the reference many practitioners already treat as standard.

The benchmark — 42/44 exact (2024–2028)

Frequently asked

Are OmAstroVedic’s festival dates accurate?

Across 44 festivals benchmarked against Drik Panchang for New Delhi (2024–2028), OmAstroVedic reproduces Drik’s published date on 42. The remaining two — Holika Dahan and Holi 2026 — follow Drik’s own documented Bhadra rule rather than its published date.

Does OmAstroVedic use a fixed table of festival dates?

No. Every date is computed at run time from Swiss Ephemeris astronomical positions (Lahiri sidereal) using the classical panchang rules — tithi, nakshatra, sunrise and the Bhadra window. There is no hand-maintained override table, so every date can be independently re-derived.

Why does Holika Dahan 2026 differ from Drik Panchang?

Drik publishes 3 March 2026; our engine selects 2 March. Drik’s own documented Bhadra rules permit the first-day pradosha muhurta on 2 March — and Drik itself makes exactly that choice for the astronomically identical Holika 2027. We keep the rule-faithful result rather than match a date that is inconsistent with Drik’s own stated method.