Walkthrough: Using the Festival Calendar and Tradition Settings

The Hindu festival calendar is not one-size-fits-all. Ekadashi falls on different days for Smartha and Vaishnava practitioners. Janmashtami timing differs between ISKCON and traditional calendars. Pandit Ji's festival calendar handles these variations correctly — once you set your tradition, every festival and fasting date reflects the right calculation for your path.

Setting Your Tradition

Go to Settings → scroll to "Calendar Tradition" → tap "Calendar Type" and choose from:

• Smartha — Traditional Advaita calendar following classical panchang rules. Standard Ekadashi and festival dates.
• Vaishnava — ISKCON and Gaudiya Vaishnava calendar. Ekadashi observed on the correct day for strict fasting per Hari Bhakti Vilasa rules. Includes Gaura Purnima, Rath Yatra, and Chaturmas markers.
• Shaiva — Pradosh Vrat, Masik Shivaratri, Skanda Sashti, and Shaiva-focused observances highlighted.

This setting applies across the entire app — Today screen, Festival Calendar, push notifications, and Ask the Pandit all use your selected tradition.

Navigating the Festival Calendar

Tap the Festivals tab in the bottom navigation. You'll see a scrollable list of upcoming festivals. Tap any festival to open its detail card, which includes:

• The festival name in English and your app language
• The significance and mythology behind the observance
• Fasting rules (if applicable) — what to avoid eating, what is permitted
• Ritual timing — when to perform specific pujas, when to break a fast
• Tradition-specific notes (e.g., "Vaishnava Ekadashi is one day later this month due to Dvadashi Vidda")

Scrolling Ahead

The festival calendar is pre-populated for the full year. Scroll down to see upcoming festivals across the coming months.

Syncing Festivals to Your Device Calendar

For calendar sync, Pandit Ji uses a webcal subscription feed rather than individual event additions. Go to Settings → Calendar Integration (a Pro feature) to generate your personal feed URL and subscribe. Once subscribed, all festivals, panchang timings, and muhurat blocks appear in your device calendar and update automatically — no manual adding required. The feed has toggles for Daily Timings, Muhurat Blocks, Festivals, and ISKCON Ekadashi (for Gaudiya Vaishnava users).

Festival Filter Persists

The Major / Regional / All filter on the Festivals tab is saved across app restarts — it's a persistent preference, not a session filter. Set it once to "Major" or "Regional" and it stays that way until you change it. This also controls which festivals are featured in push notification alerts.

Cosmic Events Section

Below the festival list, the Festivals tab also contains a Cosmic Events section (marked with ✦) showing upcoming planetary transits, retrogrades, and rare Vedic yogas. If your Moon sign is set, events that directly affect your rashi are flagged. Tap any card for a full detail view including a traditional remedy. See the Cosmic Events guide for a full walkthrough.