When scanning consecutive days in a panchang, you may notice the same tithi label twice or find that the sequence seems to jump over a name. In a sunrise-based summary, this can happen because the calendar is reporting which tithi prevails at particular daily reference points. The printed cells are a summary of a continuous sequence.
This is different from a lunar interval being created or deleted. To understand the display, separate the actual start and end of a tithi from the time at which a calendar samples it for its daily label.
A tithi is not a fixed twenty-four-hour block
A tithi is based on a twelve-degree step in the angular separation of the Moon and Sun. Its duration is not fixed to the midnight-to-midnight civil day. The tithi can therefore change between one sunrise and the next, and its boundary need not coincide with midnight.
This is the key distinction behind the apparent irregularity. A row of daily boxes has evenly spaced civil dates, but the lunar boundaries do not have to fall once inside every box in precisely the same way.
How a label can repeat
Imagine a hypothetical tithi that begins before one sunrise and continues beyond the following sunrise. A calendar recording the tithi at sunrise can display the same label on both days. The two labels refer to one continuous interval spanning both reference points.
No actual festival date is being assigned in this example. It is simply an explanation of sampling: observing the same interval twice does not mean the astronomical cycle repeated a step.
How a label can appear to be missing
Now imagine a hypothetical tithi beginning after one sunrise and ending before the next. Neither sunrise falls inside it. In a summary listing only the sunrise tithi, the sequence can appear to skip its name even though the interval occurred between the two reference points.
To investigate a real entry, consult the detailed boundary times rather than deciding the calendar has lost a day. Keep the publisher's notation for times after midnight, since that notation may be essential to reading the interval correctly.
A summary does not assign every festival
Do not infer a festival's observance date solely from whether its tithi is printed as the daily headline. Individual observances have their own selection rules and relevant time periods. Those require a source that explicitly addresses the observance.
Likewise, a repeated label does not automatically create two equivalent observance days. The daily display explains what is shown at its reference point; it does not replace the rules used to choose a particular vrat or festival date.
How to check an apparent discrepancy
Confirm the city, timezone and year first. Next, identify the publisher's reference point for the daily label. Finally, look for the detailed tithi start and end times and any observance note. These steps can turn an apparent contradiction into an understandable display choice.
For help reading those times, see Reading a Panchang Entry. If the difference concerns month names instead, consult Amanta and Purnimanta.
Reference
Positional Astronomy Centre: Rashtriya Panchang Explanation explains tithi and calendar reference information. The examples above are hypothetical illustrations, not calculated dates, worship windows or independent festival-selection rules.
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