Pradosham December 2026 — 6 December and 21 December
ప్రదోషం December 2026
Kartika Krishna Pradosham falls on Sunday, 6 December 2026, and Margashirsha Shukla Pradosham · Soma Pradosham falls on Monday, 21 December 2026. Pradosham is the thirteenth tithi at dusk, kept for Shiva. Two fall in every lunar month — one in the waxing fortnight, one in the waning — and both are observed in the twilight window around sunset rather than through the day.
| Date | Name | Telugu | Masa & Paksha | Sunset (Hyderabad) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 December 2026Sunday | Kartika Krishna Pradosham | కార్తీక కృష్ణ ప్రదోషం | Kartika Krishna | 5:40 PM |
| 21 December 2026Monday | Margashirsha Shukla Pradosham · Soma Pradosham | మార్గశిర శుక్ల ప్రదోషం · సోమ ప్రదోషం | Margashirsha Shukla | 5:46 PM |
Computed for Hyderabad (17.385°N, 78.486°E) with Lahiri ayanamsa. For your own city use Today's Panchangam, which is location-aware.
What these days are for
Kartika Krishna Pradosham — Sunday, 6 December 2026
Kartika Somavara and Pradosham together, when they fall so, are held especially fruitful.
Margashirsha Shukla Pradosham · Soma Pradosham — Monday, 21 December 2026
Abhishekam at dusk with the Mahamrityunjaya recited one hundred and eight times.
When pradosha kaal falls
Pradosha kaal is the twilight around sunset on trayodashi, and the whole observance sits inside it — for most who keep the day, the hours before carry no fast at all. How wide the window runs is not settled. The commonly kept practice takes roughly the hour and a half centred on sunset; some panchangams give forty-five minutes either side; others count only the three ghatikas — about seventy-two minutes — after sunset. Every one of them starts from the sunset in the table above, which is why that is the figure this page prints. If your family or your temple keeps a particular window, keep it; nothing here is meant to displace it.
How the evening is kept
- Bathe before the window opens. The observance begins clean, and the bath is taken in the hour before sunset rather than in the morning.
- Abhishekam. The lingam is bathed — water, milk, curd, ghee, honey, water again — then dressed with vibhuti, bilva leaves and white flowers. Bilva is the leaf Shiva is said to accept above any other.
- Nandi first. Nandi is worshipped before Shiva, and the darshan is customarily taken between his horns.
- Somasutra pradakshina. The circumambulation is not a full circle. One walks to the outlet carrying the abhishekam water away, turns back rather than crossing it, and returns the other way — repeated as many times as the family keeps.
- Recitation. The Shiva Panchakshari — Om Namah Shivaya — and the Pradosha Stotra, through the window.
- Breaking the fast. Those who fasted through the day eat after the puja: satvik, without onion or garlic.
Why dusk
The day is tied to the churning of the ocean. When the halahala poison rose and threatened everything living, Shiva drank it and held it in his throat, which is why he is Nilakantha, the blue-throated. The devas' relief came at dusk on a trayodashi, and it is that hour the observance keeps — less a fast of penance than an hour of thanksgiving, which is why it is kept in the evening and why the mood of it is unlike a day-long vrata.
21 December 2026 is Soma Pradosham
21 December 2026 falls on a Monday, which makes it Soma Pradosham. Monday is Shiva's own weekday, and the two together are held to double what the evening carries; it is the Pradosham kept for the health of a household and for the wish asked once and not repeated.