Happy Diwali from all of us at Shree Krupa Enterprise. This year the festival of lights falls on Sunday, 8 November 2026. To everyone celebrating: may the new year bring light, good health and good work, and to everyone else, thank you for sharing the season with us.
The five days
Diwali is a run of days rather than a single night. In 2026 it begins with Dhanteras on Friday, 6 November, and ends with Bhai Dooj on Tuesday, 10 November. The main night, when homes are lit with diyas and families pray to Lakshmi, is the new moon of the month of Kartika: the darkest night of the month, which is exactly why the lamps matter.
Why Diwali is a new year
There isn’t one Hindu new year. Different regions follow different calendars, and each starts its year at a different point:
- Gujarat and many trading families follow the Vikram Samvat counted from Kartika. Their year ends with Diwali, and the next day, Bestu Varas, is New Year’s Day. On Monday, 9 November 2026, Vikram Samvat 2083 begins for them.
- Much of north and central India uses the same Vikram Samvat but starts it in spring, with the month of Chaitra. So the year 2083 there had already begun in March 2026.
- Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana celebrate their new year in spring too, as Gudi Padwa and Ugadi.
- Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Punjab, Bengal, Assam and Odisha follow the sun instead, and start the year in mid-April, as Puthandu, Vishu, Baisakhi, Pohela Boishakh, Bohag Bihu and Pana Sankranti.
- The Newar community of Nepal starts the Nepal Sambat year during Tihar, their Diwali.
For merchants the Diwali new year has always been practical as well as spiritual. Traditionally the old account books are closed, and new ones, the chopda, are blessed and opened with the first entry of the year. Indian stock exchanges still hold a short Muhurat trading session on Diwali evening to mark it.
Why the date moves
Diwali was on 20 October last year and is on 8 November this year. That’s because Hindu festivals follow a lunisolar calendar: the months come from the moon, while the year has to stay with the seasons, which come from the sun.
- A lunar month, from new moon to new moon, lasts about 29.53 days. Twelve of them make about 354 days, roughly 11 days short of a solar year.
- To catch up, an extra month, called adhik maas, is added about every two and a half to three years, about seven times in every 19 years. 2026 had one, which is why Diwali is about three weeks later than in 2025.
- Over the long run Diwali therefore stays in autumn, moving within a window from about mid-October to mid-November.
The moon gives the month and the day; the sun keeps the year in its season. The extra month is what lets both be right at once.
How accurate is it?
Very, in the sense that matters for a festival. A day in this calendar, a tithi, is defined by the moon’s position: a new tithi begins each time the moon moves another 12 degrees ahead of the sun. Today’s panchangs (almanacs) compute those positions with modern astronomy, so the new moon of Kartika is known to the minute.
Two consequences surprise people:
- The date depends on where you are. A tithi starts at the same moment everywhere, but that moment falls on a different local date and time in Toronto than in Ahmedabad. Families abroad sometimes celebrate on a different day from relatives in India, and the evening puja time is different in every city. That’s why your local temple or panchang, not a converted Indian time, is the one to follow.
- The solar side is measured against the stars. Indian solar reckoning follows the sun against the fixed stars (the sidereal year), not against the equinoxes (the tropical year). The two differ by about 20 minutes a year because of the slow wobble of the Earth’s axis. Over centuries that adds up: it’s why Makar Sankranti, once near the winter solstice, now falls around 14 or 15 January.
So the moon side of the calendar is as exact as modern astronomy, and the year is kept in step with the seasons to within a few weeks, by design and by an extra month when it’s needed. For something meant to mark the turning of the year and a dark new-moon night, that’s accurate to the hour.
Still relevant
Most of the world, including our own accounts, runs on the Gregorian calendar. But calendars are about more than counting days. Diwali marks a time to settle what’s past, to open new books, and to start again with family and community. That idea is worth keeping in any calendar.
Shubh Deepavali, and Saal Mubarak to everyone beginning a new year this week.