Diwali / Lakshmi Puja
The Kartika new moon — Lakshmi worshipped in the Pradosh window, the darkest night of the year lit.
Where it is kept All India, and across the diaspora; as Kali Puja in Bengal, Bandi Chhor Divas among Sikhs, and the start of the Vikram Samvat new year in Gujarat.
When it falls
Computed from the Moon's elongation from the Sun. The civil day is the one carrying the tithi running in Pradosh Kaal, the window after sunset.
Overview
Dipavali is a row of lamps, and the festival is placed on the darkest night of the lunar month deliberately. The Lakshmi Puja is kept in Pradosh Kaal, the window after sunset, with the preference for the Sthir lagna — a fixed sign rising, so that what is invited stays. This site computes the Pradosh window rather than printing a general time.
The night carries several observances that are not the same festival. Bengal keeps Kali Puja on this new moon, not Lakshmi Puja. Sikhs keep Bandi Chhor Divas, marking Guru Hargobind's release from Gwalior with fifty-two princes. Jains keep it as the day of Mahavira's nirvana. Gujarat begins its new year the following morning.
Where it comes from
The Ramayana connection — the lamps lit at Ayodhya for Rama's return, twenty days after Ravana's death on Vijayadashami — is the northern reading, and the arithmetic in the calendar matches it. The Lakshmi association draws on her emergence at the churning of the ocean.
The festival is older than either reading and is attested in the first millennium as Dipavali or Dipapratipadutsava. For Jains it is fixed: Mahavira attained nirvana at Pavapuri on this new moon in 527 BCE by the Svetambara reckoning, and the lamps are said to have been lit that night for the light that had gone.
Why it matters
It is the accounting new year for a large part of Indian business — the old books closed and the new opened with the Chopda Pujan in Gujarat and Maharashtra, on this evening.
The Pradosh timing is the part most often got wrong. Lakshmi Puja belongs in the window after sunset while the Amavasya tithi is current, not at an arbitrary hour of the night.
How to celebrate
- Keep the Lakshmi Puja in the Pradosh windowAfter sunset, with the Amavasya current; a fixed lagna is preferred.
- Light the lamps at the door, the threshold and the water sourceThe oil lamp is what the festival is named for.
- Open the new account books if you keep Chopda PujanThe business year turns tonight.
- Keep the house open and litThe tradition is that Lakshmi enters a lit and open house; the lamps are functional in that reading.
What to avoid
These are not all the same kind of thing. Some are prohibitions from a named text, some are Indian law, some are practical, and some are a confusion worth not repeating. Each item says which it is.
- Do not burn fireworks outside the permitted hours or use barium-salt crackersSupreme Court orders restrict composition and timing; Delhi and several states impose outright bans. This is law, not advice.
- Do not gamble on the strength of the customThe 'Diwali gambling brings luck' custom is folk practice with no textual basis, and it does measurable annual harm.
- Do not set lamps where a curtain, a rangoli powder or a child can reach themThe most common household injury of the night.
- Do not perform the puja after the Amavasya tithi has endedThe tithi governs; a late-night puja after it has passed is outside the observance.
Where this comes from
Everything above is either computed by this site’s own panchang engine, or drawn from the works listed here. Where a custom is modern, commercial or contested, the page says so rather than presenting it as ancient.
- Padma Purana and Skanda Purana, for the Dipavali observance and the Pradosh Kaal Lakshmi Puja.
- Valmiki Ramayana, Yuddha Kanda, for the return to Ayodhya twenty days after the victory.
- Kalpa Sutra, for Mahavira's nirvana at Pavapuri on this new moon.
- Sikh tradition of Bandi Chhor Divas, Guru Hargobind's release from Gwalior fort.
- Supreme Court of India, orders on firecracker composition and permitted hours.
Dates are computed for the place named above and will differ elsewhere. Regional traditions vary; where two reckonings are in use, both are named rather than one being chosen silently.
Other festivals
All festivals, with dates for any year · The calendar on the home page