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
Assam calendar, computed for Chennai
- Tuesday, 24 November 2026
- Sunday, 14 November 2027
- Thursday, 2 November 2028
Where Raas Mahotsav falls on the solar year, and how far the date moves between occurrences.
- 2026: 24 Nov
- 2027: 14 Nov, 10 days earlier
- 2028: 2 Nov, 11 days earlier
The dates, year by year
Assam calendar, computed for Chennai
What the day is
The full moon of Kartika, the last day of the purnimanta Kartika month and the end of the month of lamps. Varanasi lights every step of every ghat that evening as Dev Deepawali, when the gods are held to come down to bathe; it is also Guru Nanak Jayanti for the Sikhs, and the day Shiva killed Tripurasura, which gives it the name Tripuri Purnima.
- Deity
- Shiva, Vishnu, Kartikeya, Guru Nanak
- Kind
- Festival Days of celebration: the house is decorated, a feast is cooked and the temple is visited.
Significance
The whole month of Kartik has been a month of dawn baths and evening lamps, and the full moon is its crown: those who have kept the Kartik snan make their last dip before sunrise and give the lamps, the grain and the cloth they vowed. The gods are held to celebrate Shiva's victory over Tripurasura, the three flying cities burnt with a single arrow, by coming down to Kashi to bathe in the Ganga, and that is why Varanasi lights its ghats for them rather than for itself. Some Puranas also hold that Vishnu took the Matsya form on this day, to save Manu and the Vedas from the flood, and Pushkar keeps its great fair because its lake is Brahma's own. Bihar's Sonepur fair opens where the Gandak meets the Ganga, the place where Vishnu freed the elephant from the crocodile, and Garhmukteshwar on the Ganga in western Uttar Pradesh draws its own lakhs to the bath. Assam plays the Raas as theatre. In the satras of Majuli and in the towns of Nalbari and Barpeta the Raas Mahotsav runs for several nights as bhaona, the Vaishnava drama Sankardev shaped, with the whole village in the cast and the naamghar full. After the Bihus it is the largest festival the satras keep.
How it is kept
The puja as a household does it, in order. Tick each step as it is done.
Raas Mahotsav: how it is kept
Keep ready
- Ganga water or water from a river
- clay lamps with ghee or sesame oil
- leaf boats and flowers for the floating lamps
- tulsi and bel leaves
- panchamrit and panjiri for the Satyanarayan katha
- bananas and fruit
- grain, sesame and blankets to give away
- a lota for the arghya
The steps
0 of 8 done
What is cooked
The Satyanarayan prasad of panjiri, panchamrit and bananas is shared, with kheer, and those who fast eat one meal without grain after the lamps. The Punjab eats the karah prasad and the langar of the Gurpurab, and the Telugu country breaks the Kartika fast with the temple prasadam after the lamps.
The hour
Clock times for Tuesday, 24 November 2026 at Chennai
Kartika Purnima at sunrise; the lamps are lit at dusk, and the bath is at dawn.
The main rite. The river bath is taken before sunrise while the Purnima runs, and the lamps are lit and floated at dusk on the evening the Purnima holds.
| Instant | Time | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Sunrise | 06:12 | the udaya tithi, the tithi running as the sun comes up |
| Sunset | 17:39 | the moment the sun goes down |
| Pradosha kala | 17:39 to 20:03 | the 2 h 24 min after sunset, the evening worship hour |
Sunrise 06:12, sunset 17:39, 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 | Shukla Pournami from previous day 23:43 until 20:24 | then Krishna Prathamai until next day 16:51 |
| Nakshatra | Krittika until 23:25 | then Rohini until next day 20:36 |
| Rahu kaal | 14:47 to 16:13 (1 h 26 min) | the eighth of the daylight left alone for a beginning |
| Yamaganda | 09:04 to 10:30 (1 h 26 min) | the eighth ruled by Yama, also avoided |
| Gulika | 11:55 to 13:21 (1 h 26 min) | the eighth of Saturn’s son; what is done in it is said to repeat |
| Abhijit | 11:33 to 12:18 (0 h 46 min) | the midday muhurta, good for most things |
| Moonrise | 17:19 | moonset next day 06:44 |
For Tuesday, 24 November 2026 at Chennai. A time marked "previous day" or "next day" is on the clock of that day.
The fast
Many keep the day without grain and break the fast after the evening lamp. A lamp floated on water and a bath in a river are the observances.
What is avoided
Houses keeping the Kartik vow take no meat, liquor, onion or garlic, and those who fast take no grain until the evening lamp. No lamp at the door is left unlit that evening.
The name
The same day, in every language that has a word for it
Where the regions differ
Varanasi's Dev Deepawali, Pushkar's fair, the Sikh Gurpurab and the Jain Kartik Purnima yatra to Shatrunjaya all fall on this one full moon. The Telugu country keeps it as Kartika Pournami with the 365-wick lamps. Assam plays the Raas as bhaona in the satras of Majuli and in Nalbari and Barpeta, several nights of it with the whole village in the cast. It is the largest festival of the Vaishnava satras after the Bihus.
In other regions
- Tamil Nadu
- Tamil Nadu lights its Karthigai Deepam on the Krittika star, which falls on or beside this full moon, and the fire on the Tiruvannamalai hill is the sight of it.
- Telugu
- The Telugu country keeps it as Kartika Pournami, with lamps of three hundred and sixty-five wicks and the Jwala Toranam at the Shiva temples.
- Kannada
- Karnataka keeps Kartika Hunnime with lamps in the temples and the deepotsava that closes the month of lamps.
- North India
- Varanasi lights its ghats as Dev Deepawali, Pushkar holds its fair at Brahma's lake, Sonepur opens its great cattle fair where the Gandak meets the Ganga, and Garhmukteshwar draws lakhs to the Ganga for the bath.
- Maharashtra
- Maharashtra keeps Tripurari Purnima, lighting the tall deepmal, the lamp towers of the temples, for Shiva's victory over Tripura.
- Bengal
- Bengal keeps the full moon as Rash Purnima, with Krishna's Rash Lila in the Vaishnava temples, the Rash of Shantipur and the great goddess images of Nabadwip.
- Punjab
- The Punjab keeps the full moon as Guru Nanak Gurpurab, the Prakash Purab of the first Guru, with the prabhat pheris before dawn, the akhand path, the lit gurdwaras and the langar.
- Assam (the dates above)
- Majuli, Nalbari and Barpeta are where the Raas is biggest; the bhaona is played in the naamghar with masks and the borgeet sung between scenes, and families travel back to the village for it.
- Gujarat
- Gujarat keeps it as Dev Diwali, lighting the lamps for the gods a fortnight after lighting them for the house, with the fairs at Shamlaji and Siddhpur and the Lili Parikrama of Girnar ending on it.
- Odisha
- Odisha floats paper and banana-bark boats on every tank and river before dawn with the cry of aa ka ma bai, for the Sadhabas who sailed from its ports, and the Bali Jatra opens on the Mahanadi at Cuttack.
- Goa · Konkani
- The deepastambha, the tiered stone lamp tower that stands before a Goan temple and is found in no other temple architecture, is lit tier by tier at dusk, and the lamps on the courtyard tulsi vrindavan that have burned since the Tulshi Lagn are lit for the last time.
The dates above are the Assam 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
कार्तिक पूर्णिमा की हार्दिक शुभकामनाएंKartik Purnima ki hardik shubhkamnayein
Where this day is kept
Nearest first from Chennai, with what is recorded about each.
- Uttar Pradesh
The entry for this day names Varanasi. The gazetteer line for this temple names the day. Varanasi lights every step of every ghat that evening as Dev Deepawali, when the gods are held to come down to bathe
- Brahma Temple, Pushkar 1,606 kmAjmer, Rajasthan
The entry for this day names Pushkar. The gazetteer line for this temple names the day. Varanasi's Dev Deepawali, Pushkar's fair, the Sikh Gurpurab and the Jain Kartik Purnima yatra to Shatrunjaya all fall on this one full moon.
- Somnath Jyotirlinga 1,361 kmPrabhas Patan, Gir Somnath, Gujarat
The gazetteer line for this temple names the day. Kartik Purnima and Maha Sivaratri are its days.
- Baba Hariharnath Temple, Sonepur 1,493 kmSaran, Bihar
The gazetteer line for this temple names the day. Kartik Purnima, when the Sonepur cattle fair opens with a bath here, is its day.
- Uttarakhand
The gazetteer line for this temple names the day. Kumbh, Somvati Amavasya and Kartik Purnima are its seasons.
- Rudranath Temple 1,941 kmChamoli, Uttarakhand
The gazetteer line names the day as the edge of this temple’s open season. Open about Akshaya Tritiya to Kartik Purnima.
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.
- Om Namah Shivaya (Panchakshara)
- Vishnu Sahasranamam: Vyasam Vasishtha Naptaram
- Satyanarayana katha
- Mool Mantar (Ik Onkar)
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
Raas Mahotsav'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.