Karthika Somavara - Chaturtha 2026 Date
Karthika Somavara - Chaturtha 2026 is on Monday, 7 December 2026.
Dates are for India (IST). Tithi timings for your city are on the Karthika Somavara - Chaturtha page.
About Karthika Somavara - Chaturtha
The fourth Monday closes the Kartika Somavara cycle. 'Soma' carries a double meaning — the Moon, and Shiva as Sa-Uma (with Uma) — which is why this day belongs to him. The Skanda Purana singles out Kartika Mondays as the year's most charged Somavara fasts, and this is the last of them.
The vrata-katha traces the fast to the Moon itself. Cursed to wane, Soma observed this Monday fast to recover his brightness, and asked Shiva to let the rite carry his name — Soma Vara Vrata. That story sets the tone for the fourth Monday: a fast for renewal, taken at the close of the cycle. The day's puja is precise. The Shiva linga is bathed in panchamrita (a mix of milk, curd, ghee, honey and sugar) and dressed with bilva leaves. The observer eats only one meal. Before that meal, a married couple — treated as living stand-ins for Parvati and Parameshwara — is worshipped and fed. The fourth Monday also sits just before Kartika Purnima, the night Shiva is said to have burned Tripurasura, so it doubles as the doorway to that climax.
