Latitude, longitude and time zone 13.08, 80.27
Asia/Kolkata · UTC+5:30
The date of a festival depends on the place.
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A tithi that ends at dusk in Chennai can still be running at dusk a thousand kilometres west, which moves the day. Sunrise and sunset here are computed for the place above.
When it falls next
Tamil Nadu calendar, computed for Chennai
- Sunday, 8 November 2026
- Thursday, 28 October 2027
- Tuesday, 17 October 2028
Where Deepavali falls on the solar year, and how far the date moves between occurrences.
- 2026: 8 Nov
- 2027: 28 Oct, 11 days earlier
- 2028: 17 Oct, 10 days earlier
The two days of Deepavali
Part of the same festival, in order, in the Tamil Nadu calendar
- Deepavali(this page) …
- Deepavali Amavasai · Lakshmi Puja …
The dates, year by year
Tamil Nadu calendar, computed for Chennai
What the day is
The festival of lights. The south keeps it as the morning Krishna killed Narakasura: the family rises before dawn, is rubbed with sesame oil, bathed, given new clothes, and the first crackers are lit while it is still dark. Lamps are put out at dusk and sweets are exchanged with the neighbours; the Kerala Deepavali is the quietest of them and the Tamil the earliest in the day.
- Deity
- Krishna, Lakshmi, Kali, Rama
- Kind
- Festival Days of celebration: the house is decorated, a feast is cooked and the temple is visited.
Significance
Tamil elders ask one another on this morning whether they have had their Ganga snanam, because the oil bath before sunrise is held to be a bath in the Ganga itself: at that hour, the tradition says, Ganga is present in all water and Lakshmi in the sesame oil. The new clothes, the sweets and the crackers are laid before the gods the night before and taken up only after the bath, so that the first things of the day are received as a gift. The lehiyam, a thick paste of dry ginger, pepper, ajwain and jaggery cooked in ghee, is eaten straight after the bath so that the stomach can bear the sweets that follow. A couple's first Deepavali after the wedding, the thalai deepavali, is kept at the bride's parents' home, where the son-in-law is given new clothes and gifts, and many Tamil and Telugu families also keep the Kedara Gowri vratam on the Amavasya that follows.
How it is kept
The puja as a household does it, in order. Tick each step as it is done.
Deepavali: how it is kept
Keep ready
- gingelly oil
- peppercorns or a betel leaf for the oil
- shikakai or herbal bath powder
- new clothes for everyone
- turmeric
- a plate for the clothes, the crackers and the sweets
- crackers
- clay lamps, wicks and oil
- the sweets and savouries
- dry ginger, pepper, ajwain, jaggery and ghee for the lehiyam
- rice flour for the kolam
The steps
0 of 9 done
What is cooked
Tamil Nadu makes athirasam, murukku, ribbon pakoda, thenkuzhal, mysore pak, rava laddu, badusha and the Deepavali lehiyam, and the breakfast after the bath is idli with vadai in many homes and a mutton curry in many others, as the family keeps. Kerala keeps it to a payasam and a few sweets; Karnataka makes holige, chakli and kodubale; Andhra and Telangana make ariselu, kajjikayalu and sunnundalu; Sri Lankan Tamils make laddu, murukku, paniyaram and vadai.
The hour
Clock times for Sunday, 8 November 2026 at Chennai
The Tamil calendar reads the Chaturdasi at arunodaya, the hour and a half before sunrise, because the oil bath belongs to it; the Telugu, Kannada and Kerala lists take the Amavasya running at sunset, when the lamps and the Lakshmi puja are.
The main rite. The oil bath is taken at arunodaya, the hour and a half before sunrise, while the Chaturdasi runs, and the Tamil calendar dates Deepavali by it. The Kerala, Telugu, Kannada and Sri Lankan lists take the Amavasya running at sunset, when the lamps are lit and the Lakshmi puja done, and families there take the oil bath that dawn or the dawn before.
| Instant | Time | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Arunodaya | 04:29 | the 96 minutes before sunrise, the hour of the oil bath |
| Sunrise | 06:05 | the udaya tithi, the tithi running as the sun comes up |
| Sunset | 17:40 | the moment the sun goes down |
| Pradosha kala | 17:40 to 20:04 | the 2 h 24 min after sunset, the evening worship hour |
Sunrise 06:05, sunset 17:40, UTC+5.5. These are the instants the rule is read at, not the temple's own puja times, which every temple prints for itself.
The day itself
| What | When | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Tithi | Krishna Chaturdasi from previous day 10:48 until 11:28 | then Krishna Amavasai until next day 12:32 |
| Nakshatra | Swati until next day 07:24 | then Vishakha until 2 days later, 09:19 |
| Rahu kaal | 16:13 to 17:40 (1 h 27 min) | the eighth of the daylight left alone for a beginning |
| Yamaganda | 11:53 to 13:20 (1 h 27 min) | the eighth ruled by Yama, also avoided |
| Gulika | 14:46 to 16:13 (1 h 27 min) | the eighth of Saturn’s son; what is done in it is said to repeat |
| Abhijit | 11:29 to 12:16 (0 h 46 min) | the midday muhurta, good for most things |
| Moonrise | 05:03 | moonset 16:51 |
For Sunday, 8 November 2026 at Chennai. A time marked "previous day" or "next day" is on the clock of that day.
The fast
No fast is prescribed. The first thing eaten after the bath is Deepavali lehiyam, a digestive of dry ginger, pepper and jaggery, and then the sweets.
What is avoided
Do not let the sun rise on an unbathed house: after sunrise the oil bath is only a bath. Crackers are not lit by children alone, near animals, the old or the sick, or late into the night, and a house in its year of mourning keeps no Deepavali of its own.
The name
The same day, in every language that has a word for it
Where the regions differ
The Tamil main day is the Naraka Chaturdasi morning; the north keeps the Amavasya evening that follows as Diwali and Lakshmi Puja; Bengal keeps that same night as Kali Puja. The two dates are usually one day apart. Sri Lanka keeps Deepavali as a public holiday across the island, on the Amavasya read at pradosha, strongest among the Tamils of the north and east and in the Colombo bazaars.
In other regions
- Tamil Nadu (the dates above)
- Tamil Nadu keeps the Naraka Chaturdasi dawn as Deepavali itself, the biggest day of the year for new clothes and crackers, most of them from Sivakasi; many homes keep the Kedara Gowri nombu on the Amavasya, and the thalai deepavali is the first great event of a new marriage.
- Kerala
- Kerala keeps Deepavali quietly, with the oil bath, new clothes, a few crackers and a lamp; it is a larger day in the Palakkad agraharams and among Kerala's Tamil, Konkani and Gujarati families.
- Telugu
- Andhra and Telangana take the oil bath on Naraka Chaturdasi and keep Deepavali on the Amavasya evening, with the Lakshmi puja at home and in the shops, lamps along the parapets, the crackers after the puja, and the Kedareswara vratam in many homes.
- Kannada
- Karnataka keeps three days: the oil bath on Naraka Chaturdashi, the Lakshmi puja of the homes and the shops on the Amavasya, and Balipadyami the day after, when Bali is shaped in cow dung at the threshold and the coastal houses hang the goodu deepa, the paper lantern.
- Sri Lanka
- Sri Lanka's Tamils keep Deepavali as a public holiday, with the oil bath at dawn, new clothes and the kovil in the morning, and oil lamps at the door in the evening.
- Tulu Nadu
- Tulu Nadu keeps Deepavali in the Tulu month of Bontel, with Bali Padyami the day after and the Kodi Parba of the same fortnight beside it.
- Kodagu
- Kodagu keeps it as the towns and the estates keep it, with the lamps and Balipadyami the day after. It is not one of the three days a Kodava household names as its own, and a Kodava family will put Puthari three weeks later well above it.
The dates above are the Tamil Nadu reckoning, because that is the calendar this key belongs to. Switch the tradition on the calendar page to see how another one dates the same day.
Greeting
What is said to family and friends on the day
இனிய தீபாவளி நல்வாழ்த்துக்கள்Iniya Deepavali nalvazhthukkal
Where this day is kept
Nearest first from Chennai, with what is recorded about each.
- Kamtanath Temple, Chitrakoot 1,349 kmUttar Pradesh
The gazetteer line for this temple names the day. The five-kilometre parikrama, Amavasya and Deepawali are its observances.
Temples of Krishna, Lakshmi, Kali and Rama near you
Not recorded for this day in particular: the nearest temples of the day's own gods, for a reader whose own temple is not listed above.
- Chennai, Tamil Nadu · Venkatakrishnan (Parthasarathy) with the arrow scars on his face
- Chennai, Tamil Nadu · The eight forms of Lakshmi in shrines on four floors, facing the sea
- Chennai, Tamil Nadu · Adhivyadhihara Bhaktha Anjaneyar, thirty-two feet tall from a single block of granite
- Chennai, Tamil Nadu · Adi Kamakshi and Kamakshi, standing on the pancha agni penance
1 more temple in this gazetteer is recorded for the day. Find temples near you.
Your family's own temple comes first, and its calendar is the one that decides.
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A temple is listed here only where the gazetteer's own line names this day, or where this day's own entry names the town, or where the day belongs to the ancestors or the nagas and the temple is recorded for that rite. Where neither table says anything, nothing is listed as kept for the day; where fewer than three are, the nearest temples of the day's own gods are added under a heading of their own.
Mantras
The prayers said with the day. Each opens with its words and meaning.
- Vasudeva Sutam Devam
- Lakshmi Ashtottaram (the 108 names)
- Shuklambaradharam
A name without a link is a long reading, read in full from the family’s own copy or at the place of worship; the library prints the shorter prayers.
Fixing a day for it
The muhurtham rules for a puja held alongside, whose day the family chooses
Deepavali's own date is set by the rule in "The hour" above, and no muhurtham moves it. For a satyanarayana puja around it, whose day the family does choose, the finder below applies these rules.
The Satyanarayana vratam and katha at home. Pournami is the day of the vratam and Ekadasi the next best; Kartika Pournami, Vaishakha Pournami and the Sankranti days are the ones most families choose. Thursday, the day of Guru, comes first among the weekdays, and Tuesday is the one usually passed over. The puja is done in the evening and the prasadam shared after the katha, so no lagna window is computed here.
Every date here is computed from the Sun and Moon for the place entered, by the rule printed beside it.
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A printed panchangam can differ by a day where an almanac reads a tithi at a different instant, and a family's own custom always comes first. Where the practice genuinely varies, the text says so rather than choosing for you.