Diwali 2026: The Lakshmi Puja Window, Computed

Why 8 November and not the 9th

Diwali is Kartik Amavasya, the new moon of the month of Kartika. The new moon instant itself falls on 9 November 2026 at 13:30 IST, which is why some sources will name the 9th.

But the festival is not scheduled on the instant. Lakshmi Puja is performed during pradosh kaal, the roughly two and a half hours following sunset, and the rule is that amavasya tithi must be running during that period.

Amavasya begins on 8 November at 11:29 IST and ends on 9 November at 12:32 IST. Sunset in Delhi on 8 November is 17:30, which sits inside the tithi. Sunset on 9 November is 17:29, which is after the tithi has ended. Only one of the two evenings qualifies.

So Diwali 2026 is Sunday 8 November. That is a computation anyone can check, not a convention.

The window, and how it is built

Three conditions have to hold together, and the muhurat is the overlap.

First, amavasya, which runs all evening on the 8th. Second, pradosh kaal, from sunset at 17:29 to about 19:53 in Delhi. Third, a sthir or fixed ascendant, because Lakshmi Puja is an invocation of stability and the fixed signs are what the tradition prefers for anything meant to stay.

On the evening of 8 November 2026 in Delhi the ascendant moves through Aries until 17:54, then Taurus from 17:54 to 19:49, then Gemini. Taurus is a fixed sign and is additionally ruled by Venus, which is why Vrishabha lagna is the classical choice for this particular puja.

Intersect the three and the window is **17:54 to 19:49 IST**. It begins twenty five minutes after sunset and ends three minutes before pradosh does.

That is not a minute to be hit exactly. It is a window of nearly two hours, and the tradition's own unit of time is about forty eight minutes.

What to avoid on the day

Rahu Kaal on Sunday 8 November runs 16:09 to 17:29 in Delhi. Sunday takes the eighth of the eight daylight segments, which is why it lands at the end of the afternoon. It finishes exactly at sunset and therefore does not overlap the puja window at all. If you are doing anything before the puja, such as the final shopping or opening a new account book, do it before 16:09.

Abhijit muhurat on the same day is 11:44 to 12:27, which is useful if you want a favourable window during the day itself rather than the evening.

Amavasya is normally an excluded tithi for new beginnings. Diwali is a deliberate exception rather than an inconsistency: the puja is not a new venture, it is an invocation on the darkest night of the lunar month, and the tradition treats that darkness as the point.

Adjusting this for your own city

The tithi boundaries above are the same everywhere, because a tithi is an angle between the Sun and the Moon, not a local event. Convert 11:29 and 12:32 IST to your own clock and they hold.

Everything else moves. Sunset, and therefore pradosh kaal, shifts with longitude and latitude. Rahu Kaal is one eighth of the local daylight period. The ascendant depends on your coordinates directly, so the Taurus window will not be 17:54 to 19:49 anywhere but around Delhi.

As a rough guide, sunset on 8 November is earlier in the east and later in the west: Kolkata is roughly an hour ahead of Mumbai in solar terms despite sharing a clock. That is enough to move the window substantially. Why muhurat differs by city gives the actual spread.

For your own location, the muhurat finder computes it, and the panchang shows the five limbs for the date.

The rest of the Diwali sequence in 2026

The five days are defined by consecutive tithis, so they follow from the same computation.

Dhanteras is Kartik Krishna Trayodashi, which runs 6 November 10:32 to 7 November 10:49 IST, placing it on 6 November. Naraka Chaturdashi, or Choti Diwali, is Chaturdashi, 7 November 10:49 to 8 November 11:29, placing it on the 7th.

After Diwali, Shukla Pratipada runs 9 November 12:32 to 10 November 14:01 IST, and Govardhan Puja is observed on it. Dwitiya runs 10 November 14:01 to 11 November 15:54, and Bhai Dooj is observed during the midday portion, which on 11 November is covered for the whole morning and so is the cleaner of the two days.

Those last two are genuinely regional. Where a tithi starts in the afternoon, some traditions take that day and others take the next, and we are not going to pretend there is one answer. The tithi boundaries above are the fact; the observance convention is the variable.