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Chaitraచైత్రం
The first month — the lunar year opens at Ugadi on its first tithi.
- Named for
- Chitra
- Ritu
- Vasanta (spring)
- Sun crosses
- Meena into Mesha
- Roughly
- March-April
About Chaitra
Chaitra opens the lunar year, and the tradition places the beginning of creation on its first day. It falls at the turn from winter into spring, when the mango is in flower and the neem is coming into leaf — both of which appear on the Ugadi plate. Vasanta Navratri runs through its first nine nights and closes at Rama Navami, so the month opens with a new year and a nine-night observance stacked on top of each other.
Festivals and observances
- Ugadi — shukla padyami, the Telugu and Kannada new year
- Gudi Padwa and Cheti Chand — the same day, in Maharashtra and for Sindhis
- Vasanta (Chaitra) Navratri — shukla padyami to navami
- Rama Navami — shukla navami, at midday
- Hanuman Jayanti — Chaitra purnima, in most of the south
How the month gets its name
The month is named for the nakshatra in which its full moon falls. Because a lunar month is about 29.5 days and the moon returns to the same nakshatra in about 27.3, the match is close rather than exact — the full moon lands in the named nakshatra most months and in a neighbouring one occasionally. The name does not change when it does; the rule fixed the names long ago and they stay put.
Everything here follows the amanta convention used across the Telugu country and the south, in which the month ends at the new moon. In the purnimanta reckoning of the north the month ends at the full moon instead, so every waning-fortnight day carries the following month's name. The days are identical; only the label differs.