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Why Durga Puja had a one day bonus and Saptami lasted for two days
- •This year Durga Puja featured a one-day bonus with Saptami lasting for two days, allowing people to enjoy five full days of festivities.
- •A tithi is governed by sunrise, and if a tithi lasts longer than 26 hours, it can stretch across two consecutive sunrises, known as tithi vriddhi.
- •Conversely, when two tithis overlap in a single day, it is called tithi kshoy, which can sometimes shorten the puja duration.
- •Tithis are measured based on the angular distance of sunlight on the moon, where 12 degrees of movement constitutes one tithi or kala.
- •The elliptical orbit of the moon causes its speed to vary, making tithis longer when the moon is far and shorter when it is close to Earth.
Key Questions Answered
This year's Durga Puja included a one-day bonus because Saptami lasted for two days, known as tithi vriddhi. A tithi is governed by whichever lunar day is present at sunrise, and if a tithi's duration spans beyond the following sunrise due to the moon's elliptical speed, it persists for the entire day.
Tithi kshoy occurs when a tithi ends before the next sunrise, meaning the subsequent tithi is already present at sunrise and the intermediate tithi is squeezed out. According to Benimadhab Sil's almanac, this phenomenon caused Ashtami and Navami to fall on the same day in 2024, shortening the puja to three days.
A tithi is determined by dividing the relative angular distance between the sun and the moon by 12 degrees. Sunlight travels 360 degrees over 30 days to complete phases from Amavasya to Purnima, where each 12-degree advancement equals one kala or tithi. The speed varies because the moon's orbit is elliptical.
