Indian wedding glossary · Before the wedding
What is Muhurat?
Also written: Muhurtham, shubh muhurat, मुहूर्त
A muhurat is the auspicious date and time chosen by a priest for the wedding, and often for each key ritual, based on the Hindu calendar and the couple's horoscopes.
- Who keeps it
- Hindu families across India. Jain families also choose auspicious dates and times.
- When
- Fixed before the invitation is printed, usually right after the engagement or alongside the lagan.
About Muhurat
What should you know about Muhurat?
The priest reads the panchang and the couple's charts to find a window when the stars are thought to favour the marriage. The pheras or the main rite are timed to begin inside it, which is why some weddings start late at night or at dawn.
Wedding dates cluster in the muhurat seasons, which is why venues, priests and caterers get booked out on the same few dates. In South India the word is muhurtham, and the muhurtham time is printed on the invitation.
In the order of functions
Where does Muhurat come in an Indian wedding?
Fixed before the invitation is printed, usually right after the engagement or alongside the lagan.
- Before the weddingFixing the match, the engagement, the date and the card.
- The functionsPujas, haldi, mehndi, sangeet and the family days before the wedding.
- Wedding day ritualsFrom the baraat to the pheras, nikah and anand karaj.
- After the weddingVidaai, the new home, the reception and the first visits.
Planning your own days? The free wedding function order planner puts your functions in a sensible order with dates.
On the card
What do families write on the invitation for Muhurat?
Shubh muhurat: 9:45 pm, Saturday, 14 February 2026.
Related words
Words that go with Muhurat
- Kundli milan
Kundli milan is horoscope matching, where a priest or astrologer compares the bride's and groom's birth charts before the families agree to a match.
- Lagan
Lagan is the fixed auspicious time of the wedding, and in many families the lagan patrika is the formal letter the bride's family sends to the groom's family to announce that date and time.
- Pheras
Pheras are the rounds the bride and groom take around the sacred fire, tied together, with a vow made in each round; in most North Indian weddings there are seven.
- Vivah
Vivah is the Hindi and Sanskrit word for marriage, and vivah sanskar is the Hindu wedding seen as one of the life-cycle rites, the sanskaras.
- Mandap
A mandap is the canopy, usually on four pillars, under which a Hindu wedding's main rites, such as kanyadaan and the pheras around the sacred fire, are performed.
Questions
Muhurat, answered
What is Muhurat?
A muhurat is the auspicious date and time chosen by a priest for the wedding, and often for each key ritual, based on the Hindu calendar and the couple's horoscopes.
Which families celebrate Muhurat?
Hindu families across India. Jain families also choose auspicious dates and times.
When does Muhurat happen in the order of wedding functions?
Fixed before the invitation is printed, usually right after the engagement or alongside the lagan.
What do families write on the invitation for Muhurat?
Shubh muhurat: 9:45 pm, Saturday, 14 February 2026.
Put Muhurat on your invitation with its date, time and venue, and send it on WhatsApp. Two invitation designs are free forever.
Make your invitation