Diwali 2026 Date & Shubh Muhurat: The Complete 5-Day Guide

Diwali is the one date in the Hindu calendar almost nobody needs reminding about — but the muhurat, the five-day sequence around it, and this year's added wrinkle of a Mercury retrograde overlapping the festival are worth getting precisely right.

The date: Sunday, 8 November 2026

Diwali (Deepavali) 2026 falls on Sunday, 8 November, which is Kartik Amavasya — the darkest new-moon night of the Kartik month, and the reason the festival of lights is timed exactly there. This date is consistent across major Panchang references using Lahiri ayanamsa.

The full 5-day schedule

How the Lakshmi Puja muhurat is actually calculated

Most pages simply hand you a muhurat time without explaining where it comes from — here's the logic. The Lakshmi Puja window is set by the overlap of two things: Pradosh Kaal, the twilight period beginning roughly 45 minutes after sunset and considered especially auspicious for inviting Lakshmi, and the Amavasya tithi itself, which needs to still be active. When these two windows overlap after sunset on 8 November, that intersection is the core Lakshmi Puja muhurat.

In practice, this generally places the muhurat somewhere in the early-to-mid evening — commonly cited as approximately 6 PM to 8:30 PM for northern Indian cities — but the precise minute depends entirely on your city's sunset time and local tithi boundary. Rather than rely on a single fixed time that was calculated for Delhi or Mumbai, check the exact window for your own location using the Panchang tool or the Muhurat guide.

The story behind the lights

Diwali marks Lord Rama's return to Ayodhya after fourteen years of exile, following his victory over Ravana, as recounted in the Yuddha Kanda of the Ramayana. The night of his return was Kartik Amavasya itself — the citizens of Ayodhya are said to have lit rows of oil lamps across the city so Rama could find his way home in the darkness, which is where the tradition of diya-lighting on this exact night comes from.

Puja essentials and simple do's-and-don'ts

• Clean the home thoroughly before the puja begins; a cluttered, dark home is considered unwelcoming to Lakshmi.
• Set up a small raised platform (chowki) with a red cloth, placing Ganesha to the left and Lakshmi to the right.
• Prefer clay, silver or brass idols over glass or iron for the puja setup.
• Keep the main door and a few lights on throughout the evening — an unlit, closed-up house is traditionally avoided on this night.
• Use a bell rather than clapping during the Lakshmi Aarti.
• Many households avoid non-vegetarian food and alcohol on the day of the puja itself.

Does the Mercury retrograde change anything?

This year, Diwali lands squarely inside the Mercury retrograde window running from 24 October to 13 November 2026. It's a fair question to ask — and the classical answer is reassuring: festival worship and traditional Dhanteras purchases are governed by the lunar calendar (tithi), not by Mercury's position, so Lakshmi Puja, gold-buying on Dhanteras and the rest of the five-day celebration remain fully auspicious exactly as scheduled. If you're separately planning to sign a large new contract or register a property purchase around the same dates, that's the one area where a little extra paperwork care — unrelated to the festival itself — is worth building in. See our full Mercury retrograde guide for the details.

Frequently asked questions

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