Naraka Chaturdashi · Chhoti Diwali Festival The fourteenth day of the dark fortnight of Kartika, the day Krishna killed Narakasura.
The name
The same day, written in each of the six scripts this app keeps
- English
- Naraka Chaturdashi · Chhoti Diwali
- हिन्दी
- नरक चतुर्दशी · छोटी दिवाली
Only the names actually in use are listed. A blank script is not an omission: the day may simply not be kept there, or be kept under a different festival's name.
UTC+5:30
The date of a festival depends on the place: 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
Looking for the calendar this day belongs to
This day does not fall again in the next three years at this place. A few days are tied to the solar month rather than to the civil year, so a year can hold two of them or none.
What the day is
The fourteenth day of the dark fortnight of Kartika, the day Krishna killed Narakasura. The north calls it Chhoti Diwali or Roop Chaudas and keeps it as the small night before the great one, with the first lamps and a few crackers; the oil bath before dawn, the abhyanga snan, belongs to this day everywhere.
- Deity
- Krishna, Satyabhama, Yama
- Kind
- Festival Days of celebration: the house is decorated, a feast is cooked and the temple is visited.
The hour
The rule in words
The Chaturdashi at sunrise for the northern reckoning; the bath is at arunodaya, before dawn. It can share a date with Diwali when the Chaturdashi holds the sunrise and the Amavasya reaches pradosha the same evening.
The fast
No fast. The bath with sesame oil and ubtan comes first, and the lamps are lit at dusk.
Where the regions differ
Tamil Nadu keeps this very morning as Deepavali, its main day; the north keeps the following evening as the main one. That is the whole of the difference between the northern and southern Diwali dates.
Every date here is computed from the Sun and Moon for the place entered, by the rule printed beside it. 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.