Dev Deepawali and Kartik Purnima 2026: Date and Muhurat

Dev Deepawali 2026 is on Tuesday 24 November, the full moon of Kartik. In Varanasi the lamps are lit in Pradosh Kaal, from 5:08 PM to 7:47 PM. Kartik Purnima 2026 falls on the same day, and so do the Guru Nanak Gurpurab and the close of the Pushkar fair, which puts several large gatherings on one Tuesday.

The timings

The Purnima tithi begins at 11:42 PM on Monday 23 November and ends at 8:23 PM on Tuesday 24 November, Indian time. DrikPanchang puts the Purnima fast on Tuesday the 24th, and in Delhi the moon rises at 5:01 PM that day.

The Varanasi window for Dev Deepawali, 5:08 PM to 7:47 PM, sits inside the tithi. Anyone planning to light lamps should be done by 8:23 PM, when the Purnima ends.

The Diwali of the gods

The name means the Diwali of the gods. The story behind it is that on this day Shiva, as Tripurantaka, destroyed the demon Tripurasura and his three cities with a single arrow, and the gods celebrated with a festival of lights. That is why the full moon is also called Tripuri or Tripurari Purnima.

In Varanasi, Kartik Purnima is the most popular day of the year for bathing in the Ganga. Thousands of clay lamps are lit along the ghats in the evening, people give lamps to priests, and lamps burn through the night in homes and in Shiva temples.

Kartik Purnima across the country

In Pushkar, the fair traditionally runs from Prabodhini Ekadashi to Kartik Purnima. A bath in Pushkar Lake on this day is believed to lead to salvation. The fair draws about 200,000 people and 25,000 camels.

In Odisha, families celebrate Boita Bandana by floating small boats made of banana stem, in memory of the old Kalinga sea trade.

In the south, the day is kept as the birthday of Kartikeya. In Vaishnava temples, including the Jagannath temple at Puri, raas leela is performed. The day is also remembered as the manifestation of Matsya, the fish avatar of Vishnu.

Jains go on pilgrimage to Palitana and the Shatrunjay hills, sanctified, in Jain belief, by Adinath, the first tirthankara.

Sikhs now commonly observe Kartik Purnima as the Gurpurab of Guru Nanak. Some Sikh scholars dispute the date, because modern scholarship places his birth in Vaisakh, in April.

The end of the Tulsi Vivah window

For families with a wedding in the season, this full moon has a practical meaning. Kartik Purnima is the last day on which Tulsi Vivah can be performed, in the window that opens with Prabodhini Ekadashi. In 2026 that Ekadashi, better known as Dev Uthani Ekadashi, falls on Friday 20 November, and the most common date for Tulsi Vivah is the following day.

Lamps and charity

Kartik snan, a bath at a river or other sacred water, is prescribed on this day. So are charity, fasting and the lighting of lamps. Some temples light lamps with 360 or 720 wicks, and Telugu households light oil lamps with 365 wicks in Shiva temples. Lamps are also floated on rivers and set under tulsi, peepal and amla trees.

What comes next

With Kartik over, weddings are in full flow. December 2026 has seven wedding dates before the calendar closes in the middle of the month, and Vivah Panchami, the anniversary of Rama and Sita's wedding, falls on Monday 14 December.