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November 8th – November 12th, 2026
Diwali — Deepavali, 'the row of lights' — is the largest household festival of the Sanatani year: five days around the Amavasya of Kartik, when on the darkest night of the lunar year every home becomes a row of lamps and Lakshmi is welcomed in. The five days each carry their own observance — Dhanteras, Naraka Chaturdashi, Lakshmi Puja, Govardhan Puja, and Bhai Dooj.
The festival gathers several classical stories into one week — Rama's lamp-lit return to Ayodhya, the churning ocean yielding Lakshmi and Dhanvantari, Krishna's defeat of Narakasura, Vamana and Bali — which is why different households emphasize different days, and all of them are keeping Diwali.
Worship of wealth, buying gold/silver
Victory over Narakasura
Main Diwali day, Lakshmi worship
Annakut, Krishna lifting Govardhan
Brother-sister bond
Diwali (Deepavali) runs from November 8th, 2026 to November 12th, 2026 in 2026 — a 5-day observance.
In the Pradosh Kaal — the roughly two-and-a-half-hour window after your local sunset on the Amavasya — with the fixed (sthir) lagna preferred within it. The window is city-specific: use a Panchang calculated for where you live rather than an IST timing.
Day three — Lakshmi Puja on Amavasya. Clean the home, light every lamp, and perform even a twenty-minute Lakshmi–Ganesha puja in the Pradosh window: that is the festival's heart, and the other days can be honored in miniature around it.
Purohit Ji grounds the observance in your own city and Panchang — timings, vidhi, and what to prepare, answered for your home rather than in general.
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