When is Diwali 2026?
Diwali 2026 falls on Sunday, November 8, 2026. That is the main day of the festival, when Lakshmi Puja is performed — but Diwali is not a single day. It is a five-day festival, and the details around that Sunday matter just as much: the four days around it, the evening puja timing, how many days are left, and how the festival is celebrated. This guide answers all of it, and links to a live countdown that ticks down to Diwali second by second.
The short answer: Sunday, November 8, 2026
Diwali — also spelled Deepavali, and known as the Festival of Lights — is one of the most widely celebrated festivals in the world. Its main day always falls on the new-moon night (Amavasya) of the Hindu month of Kartik, which is why the Gregorian date moves from year to year: in 2025 it was October 20, in 2026 it is November 8, and in 2027 it will be October 29. The weekday moves with it, and in 2026 the main day happens to be a Sunday, which makes the festival weekend — Dhanteras on Friday, Chhoti Diwali on Saturday, Diwali on Sunday — an easy one for families to celebrate together.
The Sunday position is worth knowing early. Because the main days fall from Friday to Sunday in 2026, travel, family gatherings and time off are simpler to arrange than in years when the festival falls midweek. If you are planning around Diwali — booking travel, ordering gifts and sweets, or taking leave — the weekend layout is the first thing to check, and it is unusually friendly this year.
What is Diwali?
Diwali marks the victory of light over darkness, good over evil and knowledge over ignorance. In Hindu tradition, the best-known story behind it is the return of Lord Rama to Ayodhya after fourteen years of exile and his victory over the demon king Ravana: the people of Ayodhya lit rows of oil lamps to welcome him home, and that lighting of lamps is still the heart of the festival today. Diwali is also associated with Goddess Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth and prosperity, and the main evening of the festival is devoted to her worship — Lakshmi Puja.
The festival is celebrated by Hindus, and also by Jains, Sikhs and some Buddhists, each with their own traditions around the same days. For Jains, Diwali marks the enlightenment of Mahavira; for Sikhs, it connects with Bandi Chhor Divas, the release of Guru Hargobind. The shared thread across all of them is light: lamps, candles and fireworks against the darkest night of the lunar month.
The five days of Diwali 2026
| Date | Day | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| November 6, 2026 | Friday | Dhanteras — the first day, associated with wealth, new purchases and the worship of Dhanvantari. |
| November 7, 2026 | Saturday | Chhoti Diwali (Naraka Chaturdashi) — the second day, associated with the defeat of the demon Narakasura. |
| November 8, 2026 | Sunday | Diwali (Lakshmi Puja) — the main day, the new-moon night, devoted to Lakshmi Puja. |
| November 10, 2026 | Tuesday | Govardhan Puja — the fourth day, associated with Lord Krishna lifting Govardhan Hill. |
| November 11, 2026 | Wednesday | Bhai Dooj — the fifth day, celebrating the bond between brothers and sisters. |
One honest note about the last two days: their dates can shift by a day depending on region and local panchang, because the new-moon tithi runs into Monday, November 9. Some regions observe Govardhan Puja and Bhai Dooj on November 9 and 10, while others — including the India dates in the table above — observe them on November 10 and 11. The main day, Sunday, November 8, is the same everywhere. If the last two days matter to you, confirm them with your local panchang rather than relying on a single table.
Lakshmi Puja muhurat: what time is the puja?
The most important timing question after the date itself is the Lakshmi Puja muhurat — the auspicious window on Diwali evening for the main puja. It is set by the overlap of two things: Pradosh Kaal (the twilight period after sunset) and the Amavasya tithi (the new-moon day). Because sunset times differ by city, the muhurat differs by city too, and different panchangs can differ by minutes.
For Delhi, most panchang sources place the Lakshmi Puja muhurat on the evening of November 8, 2026, inside Pradosh Kaal — roughly speaking, the early-to-mid evening, with published windows ranging from around 5:45 PM to around 8:30 PM depending on the source and the exact lagna calculation. That range is deliberately honest: any single minute quoted as exact would be pretending to a precision the sources do not agree on. If the exact muhurat matters to you, check a panchang for your own city — timings shift by minutes east or west of Delhi — and treat the evening Pradosh Kaal window as the reliable answer.
How many days until Diwali 2026?
It depends on the day you are reading this. From late October 2026, Diwali is roughly two weeks away — 13 days on October 26, for example. But a number printed in an article goes out of date the next morning, which is exactly why a live counter is better than a written number.
The Diwali Countdown tool shows the exact figure right now: days, hours, minutes and seconds, updating every second. The counter counts down to midnight at the start of November 8 in your own local time zone. And if you want the gap between any two dates of your own — a trip, a wedding, a festival you are waiting for — the Date Difference Calculator does the same maths for any pair of dates.
How Diwali is celebrated
Diwali is, above all, a festival of light and of home. Houses are cleaned and decorated in the days before, doorways are marked with rangoli — colourful patterns made with fine powder, flowers or rice — and on the main night, rows of diyas (small oil lamps) and candles are lit around the home. Families gather for Lakshmi Puja in the evening, exchange gifts and sweets, and in many places the night ends with fireworks. New clothes, new purchases (especially on Dhanteras, which is considered auspicious for buying) and new business ventures are all part of the season: Diwali is traditionally a time for fresh starts, and in Gujarat it even marks the start of the new year.
Food is central to the celebration. Sweets — ladoos, barfi, jalebi and many regional varieties — are made at home or bought from sweet shops, and savoury snacks are shared with visitors through the whole five days. If you are visiting someone during Diwali, sweets are the traditional gift, and a box of them is never wrong.
Diwali in Pakistan
Diwali is observed in Pakistan too, where it is an optional holiday for the Hindu community, on the same date: Sunday, November 8, 2026. The Hindu community in Pakistan — concentrated in Sindh, but present across the country — celebrates with the same core traditions: diyas, rangoli, Lakshmi Puja, sweets and family gatherings. If you are in Pakistan and searching for the date, the answer is the same November 8, and the Diwali Countdown works in your local time zone just as it does anywhere else.
Diwali dates for the years around 2026
| Year | Diwali (main day) |
|---|---|
| 2025 | Monday, October 20 |
| 2026 | Sunday, November 8 |
| 2027 | Friday, October 29 |
| 2028 | Tuesday, October 17 |
The date jumps around because it follows the lunar calendar, not the Gregorian one: the new moon of Kartik can fall anywhere from mid-October to mid-November. That is also why a countdown is more useful than a remembered date — next year’s Diwali will be more than a week earlier than this year’s.
How to use the live countdown
- Open the Diwali Countdown. It starts on its own — nothing to type, nothing to set up.
- Read the four boxes. Days, hours, minutes and seconds until Diwali, ticking live.
- Check the line underneath. It gives the same gap in weeks and total hours, and the number of “sleeps” left.
- After Diwali, it rolls over. Once the day has passed, the counter automatically switches to the next Diwali, so the page never goes stale.
Frequently asked questions
When is Diwali 2026?
Sunday, November 8, 2026 — the main day, when Lakshmi Puja is performed.
What are the five days of Diwali 2026?
Dhanteras on November 6, Chhoti Diwali on November 7, Diwali on November 8, Govardhan Puja and Bhai Dooj on November 10 and 11 (some regions observe the last two days on November 9 and 10).
What time is Lakshmi Puja in 2026?
On the evening of November 8, inside Pradosh Kaal. Published Delhi windows vary by source (roughly 5:45 PM to 8:30 PM), so confirm the exact muhurat with a panchang for your own city.
How many days are left until Diwali 2026?
That depends on today’s date. The live Diwali Countdown shows the exact number of days, hours, minutes and seconds right now.
When is Diwali 2027?
Friday, October 29, 2027.
The bottom line
Diwali 2026 is Sunday, November 8, 2026, the main day of a five-day Festival of Lights that runs from Dhanteras on November 6. If you want the exact countdown rather than a number that was true yesterday, open the Diwali Countdown tool — it ticks down to midnight on Diwali in your own time zone, second by second, and it rolls over to the next Diwali automatically.
