Diwali 2026: Date, Lakshmi Puja Vidhi and Muhurat
Diwali falls on Sunday, 8 November 2026 — Kartik Krishna Amavasya. How the Lakshmi Puja is actually done, what goes on the chowki and in what order, why Ganesh is worshipped first, and how the pradosh window is decided for your own city.
Diwali 2026 falls on Sunday, 8 November — Kartik Krishna Amavasya, the new moon of Kartik's dark fortnight, and Ashwin Amavasya in the amanta reckoning of Gujarat and Maharashtra. That is the date. The rest of this page is what a search result cannot tell you: how the puja is actually done, how its evening window is arrived at for your own city, and what is commonly done wrong.
How the Lakshmi Puja window is decided
No single clock hour is correct across India. The window comes from three conditions meeting, and two of them depend on your local sunset.
- Amavasya must be running. A tithi does not turn at midnight; it begins and ends at a single instant, one that is the same across the country. What changes city to city is sunset, and with it whether amavasya still covers your pradosh. The puja belongs to the new moon itself, so amavasya has to be current when you sit down, not merely printed against the day.
- Pradosh kaal — the twilight stretch that opens at sunset and runs roughly two hours. Lakshmi is invited in as the light goes, which is why the lamps and the puja belong to the same hour.
- Sthir lagna, a fixed sign rising: Vrishabha (Taurus) in the evening, Simha (Leo) later at night. What is invited in a fixed lagna is understood to settle and stay rather than pass through. Household puja is usually set where Vrishabha overlaps pradosh; Simha belongs mainly to those who worship at midnight.
Sunset, pradosh and lagna are local, and differ by close to two hours between India's two ends, so a muhurat lifted from a national newspaper can be well over an hour wrong. Take the tithi, sunset and lagna for your own city from the daily panchang.
What goes on the chowki
A low wooden chowki, washed and dried, a fresh red or unstitched cloth over it, a few grains of rice beneath the cloth. Set it so those sitting face east or north.
- Ganesh and Lakshmi side by side on the same cloth. Households differ on which side each takes; what is not done is placing Ganesh behind or above Lakshmi.
- A kalash of clean water holding a coin, a supari and a few grains of rice, mango leaves at its mouth, a coconut on top.
- The usual arrangement is a ghee lamp at Lakshmi's right, an oil lamp at her left, and more diyas ready for the doorway, tulsi and where water is kept.
- Roli, akshat, haldi, kumkum, kalava, flowers — lotus and marigold above all — durva for Ganesh, fruit.
- Naivedya: kheer or home-made sweets, batasha, khil, paan and supari; coins or silver, ornaments, and the ledgers if they are to be worshipped too.
The puja, in order
- Bathe, wear clean clothes, light the first lamp, and sprinkle water over yourself and the chowki with a flower or a blade of durva.
- Take a sankalp: say plainly where you are, the date, and for whom and with what intention the puja is done.
- Ganesh first, with durva, akshat and a modak or ladoo.
- Then the kalash, then Lakshmi — bathe the image with water, or panchamrit where the family does so; dry and dress it, then offer kumkum, akshat, flowers, cloth, ornaments and the garland.
- Dhoop, then the lamp, then naivedya — or your family's own paddhati.
- Where the house honours Saraswati and Kubera too, they follow Lakshmi: Saraswati through the pen, books and tools of one's work; Kubera at the safe or cash box, opened, marked with a swastik and worshipped where it stands.
- Lakshmi aarti, Ganesh aarti, then a short prayer of apology for whatever was left out or done imperfectly.
- Carry the lamps room by room through the house, kitchen and threshold included. Many keep one burning all night.
Ganesh before Lakshmi, and why
Ganesh is invoked first in almost every rite, as the remover of obstacles who received the boon of first worship. But there is a particular sense to it tonight. Lakshmi is prosperity; Ganesh is buddhi — the capacity to hold well what arrives. Wealth reaching a house without judgement is not treated here as a blessing at all. The mind is settled first; only then is fortune invited to sit down.
Kubera and the account books
Kubera is the keeper rather than the giver, and in many households he is worshipped where the money is kept rather than on the chowki. In Gujarat and among Marwari trading families the ledgers are worshipped the same evening as Chopda Pujan: old books closed with gratitude, new ones marked with swastik, kumkum and the words Shubh Labh. The first entry, though, belongs not to tonight but to Bestu Varas — Kartik Shukla Pratipada, Tuesday, 10 November in 2026 — or, in many families, to Labh Pancham. In Maharashtra the evening is Lakshmi Pujan for traders in much the same spirit. In Bengal and Assam this same amavasya night is Kali Puja, kept at midnight rather than at pradosh. Where practice differs, follow your family's line.
What is commonly done wrong
- Doing the puja in the morning because the evening looked busy. Morning is for cleaning, rangoli and cooking; the puja belongs to pradosh.
- Using a muhurat printed for another city. Sunset differs by close to two hours across India, and pradosh moves with it.
- An unclean or crowded puja place. The cleaning before Diwali is not decoration; the observance begins there.
- Lighting diyas only outside, for the street to see, while the house stays dark within.
- Firecrackers during and just after the aarti — the noise scatters the household, distresses the street's animals, and belongs nowhere near the lamp.
The night itself
Two accounts sit behind this amavasya: Lakshmi rising from the churning of the ocean, and Ayodhya lighting rows of lamps the night Rama returned after fourteen years. Both are about light placed deliberately on the darkest night of the month, which is what this tithi is. The lamp is not an ornament on that darkness; it is an answer to it.
For the tithi, sunset, pradosh and lagna in your city on 8 November 2026, see the day's panchang. For a muhurat that must sit with your own horoscope — a new shop, a first ledger entry — book a consultation.