Ashtanga moon days 2027: why no yoga on the full moon?

In Ashtanga yoga, as taught by K. Pattabhi Jois in Mysore, you do not practice on full moon and new moon days. These moon days, together with one weekly day off, are the rest days of the tradition, and 2027 has 25 of them: 12 full moons and 13 new moons. The exact date depends on your time zone, which is why a moon day list made for Mysuru or California will not always fit your city.

This article covers where the rule comes from, how the tradition explains it and what science can say about that, how to work out your own moon days, the moon salutation, a gentle 20-minute routine for full moon evenings, and every 2027 moon day in UTC.

Why is there no Ashtanga practice on full and new moon days?

Pattabhi Jois opened his yoga institute in Mysore in 1948, and the method he taught is meant as a daily practice: six days a week, traditionally with Saturday off, and no practice on full or new moon days. The rule is alive today. The Sharath Yoga Centre in Mysuru, named after his grandson R. Sharath Jois, publishes its moon days each year and closes on them, along with Sundays. Ashtanga schools elsewhere, from Miami to California, publish their own lists.

The rule is older than the method. The Miami Life Center, an Ashtanga school in Florida, explains that a moon day is really a tithi, one of the 30 lunar days of the Hindu calendar, each the time it takes the Moon to move 12 degrees relative to the Sun. The full and new moon are the 15th and 30th tithis, and in traditional India these were common days to rest from work and turn to prayer or study.

The best-known explanation inside the tradition is the one given by Tim Miller’s Ashtanga Yoga Center in Encinitas, California, which compares the lunar month to a breath:

• Full moon: the end of an inhalation, when prana, the upward and expanding force, is at its peak. You may feel energetic and emotional, but not well grounded.
• New moon: the end of an exhalation, when apana, the downward and contracting force, dominates. You may feel calm and grounded, but heavy and less inclined to push yourself.

Other ideas circulate too, such as injuries on a moon day being slow to heal. Some Ashtanga schools are refreshingly frank about those: the Miami Life Center calls them meanings students have imposed over the years and urges you to study the question and use common sense.

What does science say about moon days?

The energetic explanation belongs to yogic philosophy, and it has not been shown in physiology. Its most common scientific-sounding support, that a body made largely of water must feel the Moon the way the oceans do, does not hold up well. Tides happen because the Moon pulls slightly harder on one side of the Earth than the other, and that difference matters across an ocean thousands of kilometers wide. Across a human body it is vanishingly small, as full moon tides and spring tides explains.

That does not make moon days pointless. Ashtanga is demanding, and practiced six days a week it leaves little room for recovery. An extra day off roughly every two weeks, fixed by the sky so nobody has to negotiate it, is the kind of rest almost every training plan builds in. If you notice that you sleep lighter around the full moon, read what research found in full moon and sleep.

Whatever you believe about prana and apana, a moon day is a rest day the sky schedules for you: twice a month, no negotiation.

How do you know when your moon day is?

A full or new moon is a single moment for the whole planet, so its date depends on your clock. A few 2027 examples show how often that matters. The Strawberry Moon is full at 00:45 UTC on June 19, which is still June 18 in the US. The Buck Moon at 15:45 UTC on July 18 falls on July 19 in Australia. The Harvest Moon at 23:04 UTC on September 15 is September 15 in the Americas and September 16 in the UK, India and Australia. The new moon at 23:51 UTC on April 6 is April 7 in the UK, India and Australia.

Shalas add a second layer. Their published lists show that when the exact moment falls during the night or early morning, the moon day often moves to the day before. In 2025, for example, the Sharath Yoga Centre closed on January 13 for a full moon that arrived at 22:27 UTC, before dawn on January 14 in India. Tim Miller’s center applies similar shifts in its Pacific Time list.

To find your own dates:

1. Take the exact UTC time of each full and new moon from the table at the end of this article and convert it to your time zone.
2. If the moment lands between midnight and your morning practice, expect your shala to rest either that day or the day before.
3. When you practice in a shala, follow your teacher’s calendar; it settles every borderline case.
4. For a ready-made list, use Ashtanga moon days 2027, which gives the dates per time zone.

What is Chandra Namaskar, the moon salutation?

Chandra Namaskar is younger than it sounds. The widely taught 17-step version was created in the late 1980s at the Kripalu Center, where teacher Megha Nancy Buttenheim and colleagues created it because so little attention in yoga went to the Moon. Kripalu describes it as cooling and softening, a good way to wind down in the evening.

Instead of folding forward and back, you travel sideways. From standing with palms together, you reach overhead and arc into a half moon to each side. You step wide into a goddess squat with bent knees and raised forearms, straighten into a five-pointed star, and turn into triangle over the right leg. You fold over the right leg, bend into a low lunge, and turn to face forward in a deep squat on the right leg with the left leg stretched out, toes up. Then you shift into the same squat on the other side and retrace every pose to the left, ending with half moon and palms together at your heart.

Strict Ashtanga practitioners simply rest on a moon day, and that is the tradition. If you follow another style, or want something gentle on a full moon evening that is not a moon day for you, the moon salutation is a natural choice.

A gentle 20-minute full moon evening routine

Use a mat in a dimmed room, or outside if the night is mild, and set a soft timer so you do not watch the clock.

1. Minutes 0 to 3: arrive. Sit tall or lie down, eyes closed, and let the breath slow without forcing it.
2. Minutes 3 to 10: two rounds of moon salutation. One movement per breath, and only as deep into the squats as feels easy.
3. Minutes 10 to 13: child’s pose. Knees wide, forehead on the mat or a cushion, breathing into your back.
4. Minutes 13 to 16: reclining twist. Two knees to one side for a minute and a half, then the other.
5. Minutes 16 to 20: legs up the wall or lying flat. Rest with your palms up and end with three slow breaths.

Move gently and stop if anything hurts or you feel dizzy. Yoga is not a treatment, and if pain or poor sleep persists, see a doctor. Some people like to close with a few minutes of stillness from full moon meditation.

Ashtanga moon days 2027 in UTC

These are the exact moments of every full and new moon in 2027. Convert each to your time zone, or check the local times per moon in the full moon calendar.

Month	New moon	Full moon
January	Jan 7, 20:25 UTC	Jan 22, 12:17 UTC
February	Feb 6, 15:56 UTC	Feb 20, 23:24 UTC
March	Mar 8, 09:30 UTC	Mar 22, 10:44 UTC
April	Apr 6, 23:51 UTC	Apr 20, 22:27 UTC
May	May 6, 10:59 UTC	May 20, 10:59 UTC
June	Jun 4, 19:40 UTC	Jun 19, 00:45 UTC
July	Jul 4, 03:02 UTC	Jul 18, 15:45 UTC
August	Aug 2, 10:05 UTC and Aug 31, 17:41 UTC	Aug 17, 07:29 UTC
September	Sep 30, 02:36 UTC	Sep 15, 23:04 UTC
October	Oct 29, 13:37 UTC	Oct 15, 13:47 UTC
November	Nov 28, 03:24 UTC	Nov 14, 03:26 UTC
December	Dec 27, 20:12 UTC	Dec 13, 16:09 UTC

August has three moon days in the Americas, Europe, Africa and India, because the black moon of August 31 adds a second new moon. The year opens with the supermoon of January 22, the closest full moon of 2027. The dates per time zone are on Ashtanga moon days 2027, the new moons with local times are in the new moon calendar, and you can put every full moon in your phone with the calendar subscription.