Thrikkarthika Festival Karthigai nakshatra in the month of Karthigai, the festival of lamps.

1. Tuesday, 24 November 2026
2. Saturday, 11 December 2027
3. Friday, 1 December 2028

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Worked out for Chennai, Lahiri ayanamsa. A date is a function of the place: set yours above and the next three come back for where you are.

Karthigai nakshatra in the month of Karthigai, the festival of lamps. Rows of agal vilakku are lit on the threshold, the steps and the wall at dusk, and at Tiruvannamalai a great fire, the Mahadeepam, is lit on the hilltop at the same hour to stand for the column of light in which Shiva showed himself without beginning or end.

Deity

Shiva, Murugan

Kind

Festival Days of celebration: the house is decorated, a feast is cooked and the temple is visited.

Karthika nakshatra at sunset in Vrischikam, and the day nearer the Pournami when the star comes twice in the month. Read at sunset because the lamp is lit at dusk.

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.

No fast is required; many keep a light one until the lamps are lit. Pori urundai (puffed rice balls), appam and adhirasam are made.

English

Thrikkarthika

தமிழ்

கார்த்திகை தீபம்

മലയാളം

തൃക്കാർത്തിക

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.

Tamil Nadu lights the whole month of Karthigai; Kerala keeps the same star as Thrikarthika, and the north keeps the Kartik Purnima the following day as Dev Deepawali at the Varanasi ghats. Kerala lights rows of lamps along every doorway, compound wall and temple step, and the Thrikkarthika at the Devi temples of the north is the largest night of the Vrischikam month.

The dates above are the Kerala 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.

• Arunachaleswarar Temple 161 km
  Tiruvannamalai, Tamil Nadu

  The entry for this day names Tiruvannamalai. The gazetteer line for this temple names the day. Rows of agal vilakku are lit on the threshold, the steps and the wall at dusk, and at Tiruvannamalai a great fire, the Mahadeepam, is lit on the hilltop at the same hour to stand for the column of light in which Shiva showed himself without beginning or end.

• Kashi Vishwanath Jyotirlinga, Varanasi 1,390 km
  Uttar Pradesh

  The entry for this day names Varanasi, and it is a temple of Shiva. Kerala keeps the same star as Thrikarthika, and the north keeps the Kartik Purnima the following day as Dev Deepawali at the Varanasi ghats.

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. Your family's own temple comes first, and its calendar is the one that decides.

A temple visit, or the first darshan at a new temple. No weekday is ruled out: Tuesday belongs to Murugan and the Amman, Saturday to Perumal and Sani, so the day usually follows the deity rather than the almanac. Ashtami and Chaturdasi are the two tithis held back for darshan, with the standing exceptions of Sivaratri on Krishna Chaturdasi and Kala Bhairava Ashtami, which are kept on those very days. Rahu kaal, Yamaganda and Gulika kaal are not scored here; the panchangam page prints them for the day you pick, and most families simply wait them out.

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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.