Diwali always lands on the new Moon of Kartik. Learn the astronomical and spiritual reasons behind the festival of lights' timing.
Diwali, the festival of lights, falls on the Amavasya — the new Moon — of the lunar month of Kartik, which usually corresponds to October or November. This is the darkest night of one of the year's most sacred months, and the festival answers that darkness with rows of lamps.
Because it is fixed by tithi rather than the solar date, Diwali shifts within the common calendar each year while always landing on Kartik Amavasya.
The symbolism is deliberate. On the darkest night, lighting countless diyas represents the triumph of light over darkness, knowledge over ignorance, and good over evil. The new Moon provides the perfect dark canvas against which the lamps shine most brightly.
The festival celebrates several traditions, most famously the return of Lord Rama to Ayodhya after defeating Ravana, welcomed home by the people lighting lamps.
Kartik Amavasya is also the night Goddess Lakshmi, the deity of wealth and prosperity, is said to roam and bless clean, well-lit homes. This is why homes are cleaned, decorated and illuminated, and Lakshmi Puja is performed on Diwali night.
The new Moon's association with new beginnings makes it astrologically fitting for a festival of renewal, fresh accounts and the invocation of prosperity for the year ahead.
Diwali is set on Kartik Amavasya, the new Moon of Kartik, so that the lamps shine brightest against the darkest night of a sacred month.
It is fixed by the lunar tithi of Kartik Amavasya, so its position in the solar calendar shifts from year to year.
Kartik Amavasya is held to be the night Lakshmi blesses clean, lit homes, so Lakshmi Puja is central to Diwali.
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