Fasts & Observances — 27 Vrats, Rozas and Fasting Days

Hindu observances

Hindu observances covered on VratFuel, with how demanding each tends to be.
Observance	In short	How long	Demand
Sharad Navratri	ਨੌਂ ਦਿਨ, ਸਭ ਤੋਂ ਲੰਮਾ ਵਰਤ ਜੋ ਬਹੁਤੇ ਲੋਕ ਰੱਖਦੇ ਹਨ	Nine days	Demanding
ਚੇਤ ਨਰਾਤੇ	Spring Navratri, ending at Ram Navami	Nine days	Demanding
ਇਕਾਦਸ਼ੀ	Twice a month, the most frequently kept vrat of all	Typically from sunrise on Ekadashi to the paran window on Dwadashi the following morning	Moderate
Nirjala Ekadashi	Without water — the most demanding fast in the Hindu year	Roughly 24 hours	Very demanding
Karva Chauth	Sunrise to moonrise, kept without water in its full form	From before sunrise to moonrise	Demanding
Maha Shivratri	A day fast followed by a night of jagran	Roughly 24 hours across the day and the night vigil	Demanding
Krishna Janmashtami	Fasting until midnight, when the birth is celebrated	From sunrise until midnight	Demanding
Sankashti Chaturthi	Monthly, broken after moonrise	From sunrise to moonrise	Moderate
Ganesh Chaturthi	A festival of prasad more than a fast	One day of fasting for many; the festival itself runs up to eleven days	Light
Purnima Vrat	The full-moon fast, monthly	Sunrise to moonrise or evening	Moderate
Amavasya Vrat	The new-moon observance, often for the ancestors	Usually a day of restraint rather than abstention	Light
Pradosh Vrat	Twice a month, broken in the twilight hour	Sunrise to sunset	Moderate
Chhath Puja	The 36-hour nirjala fast	About 36 hours without food or water for the main fast	Very demanding
Hartalika Teej	A 24-hour nirjala fast, kept overnight	About 24 hours	Very demanding
Vat Savitri Vrat	A day fast at the banyan tree	Sunrise to the completion of the puja	Demanding
Somvar Vrat	The Monday fast for Shiva	Sunrise until the evening puja	Moderate
Solah Somvar Vrat	Sixteen consecutive Mondays	Sixteen weeks	Moderate
Mangalwar Vrat	The Tuesday fast for Hanuman	Sunrise until the evening	Moderate
Guruvar Vrat	The Thursday fast, with yellow food	Sunrise to the evening meal	Light
Shanivar Vrat	The Saturday fast for Shani	Sunrise to the evening	Moderate
Shukravar Vrat (Santoshi Mata)	Sixteen Fridays, and no sour food	Sunrise to the afternoon or evening meal	Light

Jain observances

Jain observances covered on VratFuel, with how demanding each tends to be.
Observance	In short	How long	Demand
Paryushan Parva	Eight or ten days of the most structured fasting in India	Eight or ten days	Very demanding
Ayambil Oli	Nine days of a single bland meal	Nine consecutive days	Demanding

Islamic observance

Islamic observance covered on VratFuel, with how demanding each tends to be.
Observance	In short	How long	Demand
Ramzan (Ramadan) Roza	A month of daily fasting from dawn to sunset	Daily	Demanding

Christian observance

Christian observance covered on VratFuel, with how demanding each tends to be.
Observance	In short	How long	Demand
Lent	Forty days of abstinence, observed very differently across churches	Forty days	Moderate

Sikh observance

Sikh observance covered on VratFuel, with how demanding each tends to be.
Observance	In short	How long	Demand
Guru Nanak Gurpurab	Not a fast — and that is the point	Not applicable	No fast

Buddhist observance

Buddhist observance covered on VratFuel, with how demanding each tends to be.
Observance	In short	How long	Demand
Uposatha	Not eating after noon, on observance days	From noon to dawn the next day	Moderate

This site does not publish fasting or prayer times

Sehri, iftar, moonrise, sunset and the start and end of any religious fast depend on your exact location and date, they are religiously significant, and an inaccurate figure would cause real harm — someone eating when they should have stopped, or going without when they need not have. VratFuel deliberately computes none of them. Use your local mosque's timetable, your community's announced panchang, or an established timetable service for your city. Those are the correct sources and they are readily available.

The practical guides

ਕਿਨ੍ਹਾਂ ਨੂੰ ਵਰਤ ਨਹੀਂ ਰੱਖਣਾ ਚਾਹੀਦਾThe most important page on this site. Fasting is safe for most healthy adults and genuinely unsafe for some people — and every tradition described here has provisions for exactly that.ਵਰਤ ਦੌਰਾਨ ਪਾਣੀ ਦੀ ਮਾਤਰਾMost of what people blame on hunger during a fast is actually fluid. Here is what is really happening, and what you can do about it inside your own observance.Training while fastingYou can usually keep training through a fast. What has to change is when, how hard, and how honest you are about recovery.Breaking a fastThe paran or iftar meal decides how you sleep, how you feel the next morning and — over a nine-day vrat — whether you finish heavier than you started.ਵਰਤ ਤੇ ਬਲੱਡ ਸ਼ੂਗਰVrat food is starch-dominant, not light. If you manage blood glucose, that is the single most important sentence on this site.Fasting and sleepJagran, a midnight paran, sehri splitting the night — the sleep cost of an observance is usually larger than the food cost, and almost nobody plans for it.Protein during a vratThe permitted food list on most Hindu fasts is starch-dominant by construction. Over nine days that matters, and here is what actually fixes it.Lighter vrat food, same rulesEvery swap on this page stays inside the commonly permitted food list. Nothing here asks you to change what your family observes — only how it is cooked.Sendha namak and electrolytesRock salt is customary on a vrat for religious reasons. It also happens to be the reason some fasting days go better than others, and the no-salt vrats are the ones worth watching.Caffeine and fasting headachesThe mid-morning headache on a vrat day is far more often caffeine withdrawal than hunger — and it is the one problem on this site with a completely free fix.Fasting and medication timingA fast does not change what you need to take. It changes when you can take it, and whether there is food with it — which for some medicines is the whole point.Sehri and iftar nutritionThis page deliberately publishes no timings. It covers what makes a sehri hold you through a long day and what makes an iftar something you can sleep after.Nine days of Navratri without losing muscleA practical plan for anyone who trains, built entirely inside the commonly permitted phalahar list.Fasting and women's healthMost of the long, difficult fasts in India — Karva Chauth, Hartalika Teej, Chhath, Vat Savitri — are kept primarily by women. This page covers what that means physically.

ਸਰੋਤ·Published vrat traditions + IFCT 2017·observance accounts and food composition·ਸਮੀਖਿਆ ਜੁਲਾਈ 2026

Practices are described as commonly observed; customs differ by family, region, community and sampradaya, and this site is not an authority on any of them. Food values come from the Indian Food Composition Tables 2017 (ICMR–NIN), the older ICMR–NIN tables, USDA FoodData Central, named composition studies and the shared ThaliFacts dataset, reconciled against Atwater factors on every build. Which source applies to which food is listed per food, and every source carries the date it was last checked. General information only — not medical or religious guidance. Fasting is not safe for everyone, particularly during pregnancy or with diabetes or other conditions. Speak to a doctor first.

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27 fasts and observances

Hindu observances

Jain observances

Islamic observance

Christian observance

Sikh observance

Buddhist observance

This site does not publish fasting or prayer times

The practical guides

Follow the build

These sites are a free service I run

27 fasts and observances

Hindu observances

Jain observances

Islamic observance

Christian observance

Sikh observance

Buddhist observance

This site does not publish fasting or prayer times

The practical guides

Follow the build

ਭਾਰਤ ਲਈ ਮੁਫ਼ਤ ਸਿਹਤ & ਫ਼ਿਟਨੈਸ ਟੂਲ