Pratipada

Pratipada (Sanskrit: प्रतिपदा, romanized: Pratipadā) or Prathama (Sanskrit: प्रथमा, romanized: Prathamā) is the Sanskrit word for "first", and is the first day in the lunar fortnight (Paksha) of the Hindu calendar. Each month has two Pratipada days, being the first day of the "bright" (Shukla) and of the "dark" (Krishna) fortnights respectively. Pratipada occurs on the first and the sixteenth day of each month.