When is Maha Ashtami 2028? Tuesday, 26 September

Maha Ashtami 2028 is on Tuesday, 26 September. In New Delhi, Shukla Ashtami runs from 6:33 AM on 25 September to 6:59 AM on 26 September. At sunrise on 25 September (6:11 AM), Shukla Ashtami does not hold. At sunrise on 26 September (6:12 AM), Shukla Ashtami holds.

Sandhi Puja: 6:35 AM to 7:23 AM (New Delhi).

The Sandhi Puja is the 48 minutes around the moment Ashtami ends and Navami begins, 24 minutes either side. That moment is one instant everywhere, so on Indian time the Sandhi Puja falls at the same clock time in every city.

Shukla Ashtami runs 25 Sept, 06:33 → 26 Sept, 06:59.

In Durga Puja Bengal, Maha Ashtami morning brings the Ashtanjali — anjali offered in three or more rounds — and the Kumari Puja, a young girl worshipped as the living Goddess. The Sandhi Puja is done in the 48 minutes spanning the end of Ashtami and the start of Navami, when Durga is said to have taken the Chamunda form to kill Chanda and Munda; 108 lamps are lit and a bali offered.

In the North, Ashtami (or Navami) is the day of Kanya Pujan — nine or more pre-pubescent girls, and often a boy as Batuk Bhairav, are washed at the feet, fed puri, halwa and black chana, given a gift and dakshina, and sent off with blessings; many break their nine-day fast with this meal.

In the Durga Saptashati (chapter 7) the Goddess, as Kali–Chamunda, seizes and beheads the generals Chanda and Munda. Bengal's Durga Puja ritual places that moment at the sandhi, the seam between Ashtami and Navami, and the Sandhi Puja re-enacts it; Maha Ashtami's worship of the fierce Shaktis flows from the same moment.

Source: Durga Saptashati (Devi Mahatmya) — the slaying of Chanda and Munda

Sandhi Puja and Kumari Puja are core to the Durga Puja liturgy codified in Bengal from the 16th–18th centuries (Raghunandana's digests, the Belur Math Kumari Puja from 1901); Kanya Pujan on Ashtami/Navami is a pan-North-Indian household rite of the same festival.

• Durga Saptashati (Devi Mahatmya) — the slaying of Chanda and Munda
• Wikipedia — Durga Ashtami

1. In Bengal the day begins with pushpanjali, flowers offered to Durga with mantras, by devotees who have fasted since morning.
2. The Sandhi Puja is performed at the juncture of Ashtami and Navami, with 108 lamps and 108 lotuses, recalling the moment Durga slew Chanda and Munda.
3. At Belur Math and other places a young girl is worshipped as the Goddess in the Kumari Puja; in the North, families perform kanya pujan.

• Bengal, Odisha, Assam. Ashtanjali, Kumari Puja, and the Sandhi Puja with 108 lamps at the Ashtami–Navami seam; the peak of Durga Puja.
• North India. Kanya Pujan / Kanjak — nine girls fed puri, halwa and chana, given gifts, and the nine-day fast broken.

• Bhog — Khichuri, labra, begun bhaja and payesh served at the pandals.
• Kanya bhoj — Halwa, puri and kala chana for the girls worshipped in the North.

Durga Maha Ashtami is kept on the day when Ashtami of Ashwin Shukla paksha prevails at sunrise. That day is Tuesday, 26 September 2028. Ashtami holds at sunrise only on this day.

at sunrise

Maha Ashtami is Ashwin Shukla Ashtami — the eighth tithi of the bright fortnight of Ashwin. The Sandhi Puja is fixed to the last 24 minutes of Ashtami and the first 24 minutes of Navami, whenever that seam falls in the day or night; the festival is in September or October.

A lunar date: Ashtami of the bright half of Ashwin drifts about 11 days earlier each solar year, then jumps back ~19 days when a leap (Adhika) month is inserted.