Rāma Navamī celebrates the birth of Śrī Rāma at Ayodhyā at noon on Caitra Śukla Navamī. The Bāla Kāṇḍa of the Rāmāyaṇa tells how King Daśaratha, long childless, performed the Putrakāmeṣṭi yajña, and a divine figure rose from the fire with a vessel of pāyasa that his three queens shared. Rāma was born to Kausalyā, Bharata to Kaikeyī, and the twins Lakṣmaṇa and Śatrughna to Sumitrā. Rāma is honoured as the seventh avatāra of Viṣṇu, who came to overcome the rākṣasa king Rāvaṇa, and his birthday also closes the nine nights of Vasanta Navarātri. How the day is fixed: Rāma Navamī is kept on the day when Caitra Śukla Navamī prevails at local Madhyāhna, the middle part of the day. The pūjā itself is placed in the Abhijit muhūrta around noon. Keep in mind: The Rāmāyaṇa places the birth on Navamī, in Punarvasu nakṣatra, at noon, so this festival is kept at midday, unlike the midnight birth of Janmāṣṭamī. Rāhu kālam, Yamagaṇḍam and Guḷikai are avoided for the pūjā. This year: The 2026 date shown here is worked out from sunrise at the place you chose, so in another city the same day can fall a day earlier or later. Noon pūjā and prasāda: Temples hold a special pūjā at midday, and many homes offer archana with the 108 names of Rāma at the hour of his birth. Many households keep a light fast, and the prasāda is shared with neighbours and visitors. Kalyāṇam and nāma japa: Many temples celebrate a Sītā Rāma kalyāṇam, the ceremonial wedding, on this day, and Bhadrācalam in Telangana is especially famous for it. At home, continuous Rāma-nāma japa or recitation of the Rāmāyaṇa through the day is a common observance. Worth remembering: Rāma Navamī closes Vasanta Navarātri, the spring nine nights of Devī that begin on Caitra Śukla Pratipadā, but the two are separate observances. Kṛṣṇa Janmāṣṭamī, with its midnight birth, is a different festival altogether. Each region keeps the day in its own idiom: pānakam and buttermilk in the Tamil and Kannada south, kalyāṇam pandals in the Telugu country, temple uccappūja in Kerala, noon cradles and suṇṭhavaḍā in Maharashtra, Swaminarayan's birth alongside Rāma's in Gujarat, and Bāsantī Pujo in Bengal. Whether a family fasts fully, reads the Rāmāyaṇa or simply chants the name depends on its own custom. The surest guide is the way the elders of one's own house keep the day.
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