Diwali 2027 and 2028: The Dates Are Already Fixed

Diwali 2027 falls on Friday 29 October. Diwali 2028 falls on Tuesday 17 October. Neither is a forecast. The Hindu calendar is arithmetic, not weather, and both dates have been calculable for as long as anyone has cared to calculate them.

People look these up early for ordinary reasons. Leave has to be booked, flights across the Atlantic get expensive in October, and families arranging a wedding need to know where the festival sits before they can see where the free weeks are.

The two years in full

In 2027 the sequence runs Dhanteras on Wednesday 27 October, Kali Chaudas on Thursday the 28th, Lakshmi Puja on Friday the 29th, Govardhan Puja on Saturday the 30th and Bhai Dooj on Sunday the 31st.

In 2028 it runs Dhanteras on Sunday 15 October, Naraka Chaturdashi on Monday the 16th, Lakshmi Puja on Tuesday the 17th, Govardhan Puja on Wednesday the 18th and Bhai Dooj on Thursday the 19th.

Those are the Delhi dates. As with Diwali 2026, households in North America and Britain should expect the last two days to sit a day earlier than the Indian calendar shows, and should check their own city rather than assume.

2027 is the good one for anyone travelling

It is worth saying plainly because it decides plans. In 2027 the main night is a Friday and Bhai Dooj is the Sunday, so the whole back half of the festival falls across a weekend. A visitor flying in needs far less leave than usual.

2028 does the opposite. Lakshmi Puja lands on a Tuesday and Bhai Dooj on a Thursday, with the entire sequence buried midweek.

Why the date keeps sliding earlier

Diwali is set by the new moon of Kartik, and twelve lunar months come to roughly 354 days against the solar year's 365. The festival therefore drifts about eleven days earlier each year: 8 November in 2026, 29 October in 2027, 17 October in 2028.

It cannot drift forever, or Diwali would eventually arrive in summer. The calendar corrects itself by inserting a thirteenth month, Adhik Maas, every two or three years, which throws the festival back toward November and starts the slide again. That is why the date looks erratic across a decade and is perfectly regular across two.

What it means for the wedding season

The festival is the marker for the season that follows, so moving Diwali moves everything behind it. The pause of Chaturmas ends at Dev Uthani Ekadashi, Tulsi Vivah is held as the season's first wedding, and the muhurat dates open after that.

An earlier Diwali means an earlier opening. Anyone booking for 2027 should read the dates alongside the 2027 muhurat calendar, because the good venues in the first open week go before the festival itself has finished.