Festival · The festival of lights
Diwali (Deepavali) 2026: date, tithi and muhurat
Diwali (Deepavali) 2026 falls on Sunday, 8 November, on Amavasya of Ashwina. The times here are for Chandigarh; choose your city to see yours.
What Diwali (Deepavali) is
Diwali, the festival of lights, falls on the new moon of the month that southern calendars call Ashwina and northern ones Kartika, and is the centre of five days of celebration. Homes are cleaned and lit with rows of lamps, rangoli decorates the doorstep, sweets and gifts are exchanged, and in the evening the family worships Lakshmi, goddess of prosperity, together with Ganesha. For Jains the night marks the nirvana of Mahavira, for Sikhs it is Bandi Chhor Divas, and in many Hindu homes it recalls Rama’s return to Ayodhya.
How the date is fixed
The Diwali Lakshmi Puja is on the Amavasya, the new-moon night, of the lunar month in which the Sun is in Tula (sidereal Libra) at the new moon. The evening that counts is the one on which Amavasya covers Pradosh, the period after sunset. The puja muhurat is the part of Pradosh in which the sthir Vrishabha lagna rises, and this page uses the same calculation as the Diwali muhurat card in the app.
Dates for 2026 to 2028
Diwali (Deepavali) is on Sunday, 8 November in 2026, Friday, 29 October in 2027 and Tuesday, 17 October in 2028. These dates are calculated from the sky for Chandigarh, not copied from a printed calendar. It falls on Amavasya of Ashwina by the amanta count, which the purnimanta calendars of the north name Kartika; the sky is the same.
| Year | Date | Tithi and month |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | Sunday, 8 November | Amavasya · Ashwina (amanta) / Kartika (purnimanta) |
| 2027 | Friday, 29 October | Amavasya · Ashwina (amanta) / Kartika (purnimanta) |
| 2028 | Tuesday, 17 October | Amavasya · Ashwina (amanta) / Kartika (purnimanta) |
Muhurat for Diwali (Deepavali)
For Chandigarh in 2026, the main time is the Lakshmi Puja muhurat (Vrishabha lagna in Pradosh): 5:53 pm – 7:47 pm on Sunday, 8 November. Sunrise, sunset and the parts of the day move with the city, so the window, and sometimes the day itself, can change elsewhere. Choose your city below and the tables follow.
| Muhurat | 2026 | 2027 | 2028 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lakshmi Puja muhurat (Vrishabha lagna in Pradosh) | 5:53 pm – 7:47 pm | 6:33 pm – 8:28 pm | 7:17 pm – 9:12 pm |
| Pradosh (evening) | 5:30 pm – 8:09 pm | 5:38 pm – 8:13 pm | 5:49 pm – 8:21 pm |
After a bath, new clothes and a clean, lit home, the family sits for the Lakshmi–Ganesh puja at the muhurat, with a lamp, flowers, sweets and the account books or tools of the family’s work. Then come fireworks (kept short and quiet where the city asks for it), food and visits to relatives. The next day brings Govardhan Puja, and the day after that, Bhai Dooj.
The five days are Dhanteras, Naraka Chaturdashi (Choti Diwali), Diwali, Govardhan Puja and Bhai Dooj; this site has a page for the first, third and fifth.
The app shows the Lakshmi Puja muhurat for your city as a card you can share, in the weeks before Diwali. Open the Diwali card.
Questions people ask
Why does Diwali fall on a different date each year?
Diwali follows the Moon, not the solar calendar. It is kept on the new-moon night of the month in which the Sun is in sidereal Tula, so it moves between mid-October and mid-November.
What is the Lakshmi Puja muhurat based on?
It is the Pradosh window, after sunset on the Amavasya, in which the fixed Vrishabha lagna is rising for your city. The classical texts prefer a fixed sign so that what is begun stays steady, and Pradosh because it is the evening twilight.
Is Diwali on the same day everywhere in India?
Almost always. In rare years the Amavasya begins or ends close to sunset and two cities can differ by a day; this page calculates the day and the window for the city you pick.
When is Diwali (Deepavali) in 2026, 2027 and 2028?
Diwali (Deepavali) is on Sunday, 8 November 2026; Friday, 29 October 2027; Tuesday, 17 October 2028, calculated for Chandigarh. In another city the day can differ by one when the tithi starts or ends close to the time of day the rule uses.
How does JYOTISH.info calculate Diwali (Deepavali)?
From the sky, with the astronomy-engine library on the Lahiri sidereal zodiac: the lunar month from the Sun’s sign at the new moon, the tithi from the Moon–Sun angle, and the day part that the festival’s own rule asks for, at the city’s sunrise and sunset. Nothing is copied from a table. The rule is stated above and the full method is on the method page.
Every position on this page is calculated sidereal with the Lahiri ayanamsa from the astronomy-engine library (MIT licence). The classical texts describe tendencies; this page is for guidance and reflection, not a verdict, and no outcome is promised. How we calculate. This is the English page and the legal reference. The same page is available in Hindi. Checked October 2026.