When was karwa chauth in USA in year 2007?

(From email archives -- I have replied to various people on separate thread elsewhere)

There is a misconception that Indian tithis are connected to English dates as given in Indian panchanga. The Indian panchangam is computed keeping IST in mind. The tithis ends at the same instance all over the world. For example Tithi chaturthi ends on 20:01 on October 29th in India, subtracting time difference of 12 hours 30 minutes (Pacific Daylight Saving time) from IST time gives it 7:31 AM on October 29th 2007th morning for cities observing Pacific Standard Time (California, Washington, Oregon, British Columbia for example).

Now when to observe festivals is different ball game, as every festival has different set of rules. These rules are well written ages ago by our sages in various dharma shastras like DharmaSindhu, Nirnay Sindhu, Tithi Nirnay, and many others.

The rule for Karwa Chauth is, “Karwa Chauth to be observed at moonrise (chandrodaya vyapini) and poorvaviddha, best if its tritiya viddha. If visible during both days take the first one, if not visible on both days then take the second one”.

Caluclation Example and Explanation:
Now in India, chaturthi end timings are 20:01. Now, moonrise in New Delhi is at 20:31 (The average moonrise in India is around 20:31) on October 29th. It is not even visible on moonrise time on October 29th, but according to the rule, Karwa Chauth in India is on October 29th (as the second rule applies if not visible on both days take the second day). Moonrise time on October 28th is at 20:10. Tritiya ends on October 28th at 23:05 in India. Hence on 28th at the moonrise time Chaturthi is not visible.

Now, moonrise is different for all cities in the world, Tithi ending times are also different in different parts of the world, as we explained earlier. Now if you subtract Pacific Daylight Saving time difference from India’s Tritiya end time, that is 23:05 -12:30 gives 10:35 AM, Tritiya ending time for USA/Canada’s Pacific Time zone. it is very clear that during the moonrise time in Seattle Chaturthi thithi is visible on October 28th, hence karwa chauth in Seattle is on October 28th, not October 29th.

If you have a child birth at home, will you make his / her janampatri -- horoscope based on american time converted to indian standard time and then make horoscope or you will provide longitude latitude of the birth place? if you make your or your loved one's birth chart horoscope as per scientific methods then why not follow festivals as per that rule. Remember those days of past when only few handful astrologers knew how to make kundli -- janampatri of people born outside india, now with advancements of computer its easy to get janampatri of people born outside of india through software. Unfortunately, it took awhile to educate people about folllowing correct janmapatri.

The confusion about the whole thing is we always assume the day is 24 hours long, and it changes at midnight. Hindi calendar is Lunisolar calendar. Hindu day may not be 24 hours long. It can be 19 to 26 hours long, and starts from one sunrise to another sunrise with length of the day from sunrise to sunset and night from sunset to next day's sunrise.

Most festivals are observed based on given tithi visible at the sunrise (New year, navaratri for example), some are observed if given tithi visible during midday, some are observed if tithi visible during midnight (Shivaratri for example). In such case observance starts from the morning -- sunrise even though different tithi prevails during sunrise. According to vaishnavite tradition and smartha tradition ekadashi observance rules are be different, hence even in india sometimes vaishnava ekadasi will appear on a different day then smartha ekadashi.
Now, about the karwa chauth rule laid down by dharma shastra, they say forth tithi, not the forth day after fullmoon. Hence, You can't literally take the 4th day!. Tithi can be treated as a day but the length of the day varies like i mentioned before. Indian day (Tithi) could range from 19 hours to 26 hours. Sometimes in indian panchangam you will notice words like kshya tithi, means tithi is less than 60 gatikas -- 24 hours, and vriddhi tithi means the day / tithi is more than 60 ghatikas -- 24 hours.

English date is based on earth's rotation, where as indian date is difference between sun and moon the distance between sun and the moon. Calendar makers use dharma shastra granths (books) like Tithi Nirnay, Kaal nirnay, Dharma Sindhu, Nirnay Sindhu, Parva Nirnay, etc.. to apply rules to panchang data available to them.

Bassed on that let me give you another real example of karwa chauth celebrated in past in India. As per the indian panchang, Karwa chauth in year 2005 was after third night after full moon, that is October 20th 2005 (Purnima was on October 17th 2005), the reason is simple at the moonrise in india chaurthi was visible, so even india they do not follow the literal rule forth night after the full moon. It is forth tithi visible after full moon during moonrise time. Anyways, you will never observe fast overnight! Because the festival rule says you need to break the fast at the moonrise after doing chandra darshan. so you will be fasting from the morning even if tritiya prevails during the morning of the karwa chauth. People in india On October 20th 2005 started fasting in morning althought tritiya was prevailing during the morning and broken their fast at night after moonrise as chaturthi tithi was visible during moonrise. This forth day in india and third day in usa is mainly due to time difference, different sunrise sunset timings, different moonrise timings, etc.....

Maharishi Vashistha, Tithi Chinamani and various other treatise say the following:
tebhyaH syaad grahanaadi driksamamiyam prokta maya saa tithigraahya mangal dharma nirnayvidhaaveSha yato driksama

Which means in whichever paksha (desha), and kaala you see the drika ganita, tithi and festival nirnay should be done accordingly.The spirituality about vrata comes from believing of it. If we follow vratam then why not do it on the right day? The problem is which is the right day? When we follow eclipse, let's see Total lunar eclipse which is visible to the most part of the world at the same time, we always subtract or add the time difference from GMT timings to observe eclipse right? Because it is visible, same way tithi and nakshtra timings although not visible but still needs to be applied appropriate time difference and apply shastra sidhdhanta to determine when to do fast. I can assure you it will be never in the night. :)

To find out your son's star or looking for a panchangam? visit http://www.mypanchang.com and click on panchanga and select the city you want.