Kartik Purnima 2026: Date, Significance and Home Puja

Last updated 28 September 2026 · By Rohan Verma

Kartik Purnima this year is Tuesday 24 November. The tithi does not sit neatly inside that date. It opens close to midnight the night before and lifts in the early evening of the 24th, so the snan, the daan and the lamps all belong to the Tuesday.

It ends the month that Hindu tradition rates above the other eleven. It is also, by a distance, the most crowded single date on the Indian religious calendar, and very few people realise quite how crowded.

On this one night Shiva burns three flying cities, Vishnu takes his first avatar, Kartikeya is born, the gods come down to Kashi to light lamps, and Sikhs mark the birth of Guru Nanak Dev Ji. Five traditions, one moon.

Most pages give you the date and a paragraph on deep daan. This guide walks the whole day: the tithi timings, all five stories, the month of Kartik snan that ends here, how to do the puja and the lamp offering properly at home, what the vrat actually asks of you, and how five regions of India celebrate the same moon completely differently.

Kartik Purnima 2026 date and tithi timings

Kartik Purnima 2026 is on Tuesday 24 November. It is the full moon of Kartik, the eighth month of the Hindu lunar calendar, and it always lands fifteen days after Diwali.

A tithi is a lunar day, and it does not start at midnight the way a calendar date does. That is why the Purnima tithi here begins late on the night of the 23rd and ends in the evening of the 24th.

What	When (2026)
Kartik Purnima	Tuesday 24 November
Purnima tithi begins	11:42 PM, Monday 23 November
Purnima tithi ends	8:23 PM, Tuesday 24 November
Moonrise (Delhi)	around 5:02 PM, 24 November
Snan and daan	Before sunrise, 24 November
Deep daan	After sunset, 24 November

Those timings are calculated for Delhi. Sunrise, sunset and moonrise all shift by city, so a family in Chennai or Guwahati will light lamps at a different clock time. Check a panchang for your own city before fixing a muhurat.

Kartik Purnima sits at the end of a long November sequence, and it helps to see the whole run in order:

• Diwali: Sunday 8 November 2026, on Kartik Amavasya
• Chhath: 13 to 16 November
• Dev Uthani Ekadashi: Friday 20 November, when Vishnu wakes
• Tulsi Vivah: Saturday 21 November
• Kartik Purnima: Tuesday 24 November

So the month opens with Diwali on the new moon and closes with Dev Deepawali on the full moon. Lamps at both ends, fifteen days apart. Families who keep the full Kartik vrat treat those fifteen days as one continuous observance.

For the rest of the year's dates in one place, our Hindu festival and vrat calendar 2026 lists every purnima and ekadashi with its tithi.

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What is Kartik Purnima, and why is this full moon different?

Kartik Purnima is the full moon that ends the month of Kartik, and most Hindu traditions rate it the most meritorious purnima of the twelve. A bath, a gift or a lamp offered today is said to return many times what the same act returns on an ordinary day.

Every month has a full moon. What makes this one carry so much weight is the month it sits in.

Kartik is considered the holiest lunar month, the way Shravan belongs to Shiva and Magh belongs to the rivers. The Puranas repeat the point: charity on Kartik Purnima is described as equal in benefit to performing ten yajnas.

There is a practical layer under the devotional one. Kartik falls right after the monsoon withdraws. Rivers run clear again, the nights turn cold and clean, and the first proper full moon of the cold season is visible in a way the monsoon full moons never are.

The month also closes Chaturmas, the four-month stretch when Vishnu is said to sleep and weddings, housewarmings and new ventures are traditionally paused. Vishnu wakes on Dev Uthani Ekadashi, and by Kartik Purnima the auspicious season is fully open again.

That is why the wedding season in north India effectively begins in this window. The pause is over, and the calendar fills up.

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Why do we celebrate Kartik Purnima? Five things one moon marks

Kartik Purnima is celebrated because five separate traditions place a major event on this same full moon: Shiva's destruction of Tripurasura, Vishnu's Matsya avatar, the birth of Kartikeya, the descent of the gods to Kashi, and the birth of Guru Nanak Dev Ji.

No other date in the Hindu year carries this much at once. It is the reason the day answers to so many names.

A few of these overlap and a few genuinely do not. Here is how they sit together:

• Tripurari Purnima is the Shaiva reading. Shiva as Tripurantaka destroys the three cities of the asura Tripurasura, and the day ranks second only to Mahashivratri among Shiva festivals.
• Matsya Jayanti is the Vaishnava reading. Vishnu appears as the fish who tows Manu's boat through the deluge, the first of the dashavatar.
• Kartikeya's birth gives the month its name. Kartik is the month of Kartikeya, and the south marks the day as Karthigai Deepam.
• Dev Deepawali is the devas' own festival of lights, kept most visibly at Varanasi.
• Guru Nanak Gurpurab is the Sikh observance of the first Guru's prakash utsav, held on this purnima.

The Vaishnava calendar folds in one more. Krishna is described as worshipping Radha on this night in the Brahma Vaivarta Purana, and Bengal and Braj keep the day as Raas Purnima for the raas leela.

So many claims landing on one date is not an awkwardness the tradition works around. The reasoning runs the other way: the day is auspicious, so auspicious things get placed on it.

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The Tripurasura story, and why it is called Tripurari Purnima

Kartik Purnima is called Tripurari Purnima because Shiva, in his form as Tripurantaka, destroyed the three cities of the demon Tripurasura on this day with a single arrow. Tripurari means the enemy of the three cities.

The story is worth telling properly, because the detail is the point.

Tripurasura, born of three asura brothers, won a boon that made him close to untouchable. He was given three flying cities, one of gold, one of silver and one of iron. They could only be destroyed in a single strike, at the single moment in a very long cycle when all three aligned.

The three cities moved independently for years at a time. Anyone waiting for the alignment had to be patient in a way no ordinary being could manage.

So Shiva waited. When the three finally lined up, he took the earth as his chariot, the sun and moon as its wheels, Meru as his bow and Vishnu himself as the arrow, and loosed one shot. The cities burned, and the gods lit lamps in relief.

That lamp-lighting is the origin of Dev Deepawali. The whole visual culture of the day, the rows of diyas on the ghat steps, traces back to this one celebration.

The three cities are usually read as the three states the ego builds and hides in. Gold, silver and iron stand for the waking, dreaming and sleeping mind. They can only be struck when all three align, which is to say in a single moment of complete attention.

Households that keep the Shaiva reading of the day often do an evening abhishek rather than a Satyanarayan katha. A small silver-plated Shiva idol kept in the mandir is enough for it. Water, bel patra, a diya, and the Panchakshari mantra.

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Is Dev Deepawali the same as Kartik Purnima?

Yes. Dev Deepawali is the evening of Kartik Purnima, not a separate festival on a separate date. In 2026 both fall on Tuesday 24 November. The name simply refers to what happens after sunset: the gods are said to descend to earth and celebrate their own Diwali.

The confusion is common because the two names get used in different places for the same night. North Indian households say Kartik Purnima. Varanasi says Dev Deepawali.

Kashi is where it becomes a spectacle. All 84 ghats along the Ganga are lit end to end with lakhs of earthen lamps, from Assi ghat to Rajghat, and the reflection runs the full curve of the river. The Ganga aarti that evening is the largest of the year.

The tradition there ties the celebration directly to the Tripurasura victory. The gods came down to Kashi to thank Shiva, and the city has been repeating the gesture since.

If you are planning to be there, two practical notes. The ghats fill from late afternoon and the lamps are lit at dusk, so a boat is booked days ahead, not on the day. And the crowd on the river is as heavy as the crowd on the steps.

Dev Deepawali is also kept far from Varanasi. Families across north India light lamps at the doorway, on the terrace and at the tulsi plant that evening, without the ghats and without the crowd.

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Kartik snan: the month-long bath that ends today

Kartik snan is a daily pre-dawn bath kept through the whole month of Kartik, and Kartik Purnima is the day it ends. Devotees who began on Sharad Purnima complete the vow on this morning, usually with a final bath in a river or a tank.

The vow is one of the oldest continuous practices in the calendar and it is genuinely demanding. A bath before sunrise, every day, for a full lunar month, in weather that gets colder each week.

Those who keep it usually also keep some of these through the month:

• A vegetarian diet for all thirty days, with onion and garlic left out
• A lamp lit at the tulsi plant every evening at dusk
• Daily recitation of the Vishnu Sahasranama or the Kartik Mahatmya
• Sleeping on the floor rather than a bed
• Giving up one food they particularly like, for the month

You do not need a river for the final snan. The accepted practice for city families is a bath at home before sunrise, with a spoon of Ganga jal added to the bucket, facing east, saying the sankalp aloud.

If you can reach flowing water, the traditional order is worth keeping: enter facing the sunrise, three dips, then offer water to the sun from cupped hands while standing.

The month-long version is not the only way in. Plenty of households keep only the Purnima morning itself, and that is a complete observance on its own terms.

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Deep daan: how to offer lamps, and how many

Deep daan means the gift of light, and on Kartik Purnima it is done after sunset by floating lamps on water or lighting rows of them at home. The common counts are 5, 11 or 21 lamps, though some households light 360 wicks, one for each day and night of the ritual year.

This is the ritual the day is built around. Snan is the morning half; deep daan is the evening half.

The traditional form is a lamp set afloat. In Varanasi they go on the river, in Odisha in little boats of banana stem, and in most homes in a thali of water on the terrace, which does the same thing in miniature.

The placements that matter most at home:

• At the tulsi plant, first and most important, lit at dusk
• At the main doorway, one on each side of the threshold
• In the mandir, before the puja begins
• On water, a thali or a bucket on the terrace, for the floating offering
• Under a peepal or amla tree, if there is one near the house

Earthen diyas are the traditional choice and they are meant to be given away or immersed afterwards. Many families now keep a set of metal lamps for the mandir and use mitti ke diye outside, which is a sensible split.

A reusable lamp like this silver-plated flower diya stays in the mandir year after year and takes the ghee wick for the evening aarti. The pure silver plating keeps its lustre in lamplight, which is the whole point of a metal diya on a night like this.

Use ghee if you can. Til oil is the accepted second choice, and it is what most households actually use for the outdoor lamps because it burns longer in a draught.

One rule that is worth respecting. A lamp offered in deep daan is not brought back inside. It burns out where it was placed, or it goes on the water. Bringing it back defeats the daan, the giving.

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Kartik Purnima puja vidhi at home, step by step

The Kartik Purnima puja vidhi has two halves: a snan and daan sequence before sunrise, and a lamp offering with aarti after sunset. Most households keep both, and the whole thing takes under an hour if the preparation is done the night before.

Here is the order, written for a home mandir rather than a temple.

Before sunrise

1. Bathe before first light. Add Ganga jal to the water if you have it. Face east.
2. Take the sankalp. Standing with water in your right palm, say your name, gotra if you know it, the place, and what you are keeping the day for. Let the water fall into a plate.
3. Offer arghya to the sun. Water from a lota or from cupped hands, poured towards the rising sun.
4. Clean the mandir and wipe the idols. Fresh water in the kalash, fresh flowers.
5. Light the first diya and offer dhoop. Chant whichever name of the Lord your family keeps.
6. Do the daan. Food, clothes, a blanket or money to someone who needs it. This is not optional on this day; daan is half of what the date is for.

After sunset

1. Light the lamp at the tulsi plant first, at dusk, before any other lamp in the house.
2. Set the diyas at the doorway and anywhere else you keep them.
3. Float the lamps. A thali of water on the terrace, or a tank, or a river if you are near one.
4. Do the evening puja in the mandir with the moon up. Many families read the Satyanarayan katha here.
5. Aarti, then distribute prasad. Kheer, puri and chana dal are the usual bhog.
6. Look at the moon before you eat. Those keeping the vrat break it only after darshan of the full moon.

Prepare the night before if you can. Wicks rolled, ghee decanted, flowers bought, the mandir already wiped down. The morning half of this day starts very early and rushing it is the usual way it goes wrong.

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The Kartik Purnima vrat: who keeps it and what it asks

The Kartik Purnima vrat is a single-day fast kept from sunrise until the full moon is sighted in the evening. It is not a nirjala fast: water, fruit, milk and one sattvik meal are permitted, which makes it far gentler than Chhath or Karva Chauth.

Anyone can keep it. There is no gender rule attached to this one, and in most households more than one member does it.

What people usually eat through the day:

• Fruit, milk and water freely through the morning
• Kuttu or singhara atta if they want something cooked
• Sendha namak instead of table salt
• One sattvik meal after moonrise, without onion, garlic or grains for the strict version

What is set aside for the day: non-vegetarian food, alcohol, onion and garlic. In Odisha the whole month is vegetarian for many families, and normal diet resumes only on Chhada Khai, the day after Kartik Purnima.

The traditional prohibitions on the day itself go further than food. Cutting hair, shaving and felling trees are all avoided, on the reasoning that a day given to non-violence should not begin with a blade.

The vrat is broken after darshan of the moon, with the evening bhog. If cloud hides the moon, families wait a reasonable while and then break it anyway. The intention carries.

If you are keeping a fast for the first time, do the gentle version. Fruit and milk through the day, the evening meal after moonrise, and the lamps lit properly. A fast kept badly and abandoned at 4 PM helps nobody.

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Satyanarayan katha, the puja most families actually do

The Satyanarayan katha is the most commonly performed puja on Kartik Purnima, held in the evening once the moon is up. Satyanarayan is a form of Vishnu, and the katha is traditionally read on purnima days, with this one the most favoured of the year.

It is popular because it is simple and needs no priest, though many families call one. The katha runs in five chapters and takes about forty minutes read aloud.

What is set out for it:

• A chowki with a clean yellow cloth, and a kalash with water, mango leaves and a coconut
• An idol or picture of Vishnu, with tulsi leaves, which the puja genuinely requires
• Banana leaves or a banana plant at the four corners if you are keeping the full form
• Sapatha bhog, the panjiri of wheat flour, sugar, ghee and banana that is the fixed prasad of this katha
• Five fruits, panchamrit, dhoop, and a ghee diya

The five chapters are read in order, with the family seated, and the aarti follows the fifth. Prasad is distributed to everyone present, and the tradition is firm that nobody leaves without it.

Households that keep the katha every purnima usually have a dedicated Vishnu murti for it. A silver-plated piece like this Vishnu Lakshmi on Sheshnag sits in the mandir through the year and comes to the chowki for the katha. Whatever you use, keep tulsi on it.

Tulsi matters more here than on an ordinary purnima. Tulsi Vivah was three days earlier, on 21 November 2026, and the marriage of Tulsi to Vishnu is still fresh in the month's arc. Our Tulsi Vivah 2026 puja vidhi guide covers that ceremony in full.

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Five regions, one moon, five celebrations

The same full moon is kept in completely different ways across India, from a camel fair in Rajasthan to a boat ritual in Odisha to a hill beacon in Tamil Nadu. None of these is a variant of the others; they are parallel traditions that happen to share a date.

This is the part of Kartik Purnima almost no guide covers, and it is the most interesting thing about the day.

Region	What it is called	What happens
Varanasi, UP	Dev Deepawali	All 84 ghats lit with lakhs of diyas; the year's biggest Ganga aarti
Pushkar, Rajasthan	Pushkar Mela	Asia's largest camel fair closes on this day; a 5 km parikrama of the lake
Odisha	Boita Bandana	Miniature boats of banana stem floated at dawn, remembering Kalinga's sea trade
Tamil Nadu	Karthigai Deepam	Rows of lamps on every balcony; the Maha Deepam beacon lit on Arunachala hill
Bengal and Braj	Raas Purnima	The raas leela of Radha and Krishna performed through the night

Pushkar runs a full week ahead of the date. The 2026 fair is 17 to 24 November, and the last day is the one that matters: bathing in Pushkar lake on Kartik Purnima is held to be the most meritorious dip available anywhere. Around 200,000 people and 25,000 camels come through.

Boita Bandana in Odisha is a memory of a trading past. Odia merchants once sailed to Java, Sumatra and Bali, and families still float little boats of banana stem carrying a lamp, a betel leaf and a coin at first light, calling out to the old sea route.

Karthigai Deepam at Tiruvannamalai is the most visible of all. A beacon is lit in a giant cauldron on the summit of Arunachala hill, and it is visible for miles. In 2026 the Bharani Deepam is lit on Monday 23 November and the Maha Deepam on Tuesday the 24th.

Two more traditions share the day. Jains complete the Chaturmas here and undertake the pilgrimage to Palitana in Gujarat, walking the Shatrunjay hills to the Adinath temple. Sikhs keep Guru Nanak Gurpurab, with an Akhand Path in the days before and nagar kirtan on the day.

It makes 24 November 2026 a holiday across most of India, which is worth knowing if you are planning travel, deliveries or anything that depends on offices being open.

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What to do and what to avoid on Kartik Purnima

The short version: bathe early, give something away, light lamps at dusk, and avoid anything that cuts, kills or quarrels. The prohibitions on this day are stricter than on most purnimas, and they are mostly about non-violence.

What the tradition asks for:

• Snan before sunrise, in a river if you can reach one, at home if you cannot
• Daan, and specifically food, a blanket, or warm clothing, since this is the start of winter
• Deep daan at dusk, beginning at the tulsi plant
• Feeding cows, birds or fish; feeding aquatic life is specifically praised for this day
• Reading the Satyanarayan katha or the Vishnu Sahasranama
• Darshan of the full moon before breaking a fast

What is set aside:

• Cutting hair, shaving or trimming nails
• Cutting trees or plucking tulsi leaves after dark
• Non-vegetarian food and alcohol
• Arguments, harsh speech and raising a hand to anyone in the house
• Starting anything on borrowed money, by older custom

The logic underneath is consistent. This is the day Shiva ended a war and the gods lit lamps in relief, so the day is kept without violence of any kind, right down to a blade on your own hair.

One thing worth adding, because winter starts here. The daan that families in north India traditionally give on this day is a blanket or a shawl, not money. It is the first properly cold week of the year, and the gift is meant to be useful that night.

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Frequently asked questions

2026 में कार्तिक पूर्णिमा कब है?

कार्तिक पूर्णिमा 2026 में मंगलवार 24 नवंबर को है। पूर्णिमा तिथि 23 नवंबर की रात 11:42 बजे शुरू होकर 24 नवंबर की शाम 8:23 बजे समाप्त होती है, इसलिए स्नान, दान और दीपदान सभी 24 नवंबर को ही किए जाएंगे। दिल्ली में चंद्रोदय लगभग शाम 5:02 बजे है। अपने शहर का पंचांग अवश्य देखें, क्योंकि सूर्योदय और चंद्रोदय का समय हर शहर में अलग होता है।

Kartik Purnima aur Dev Deepawali mein kya antar hai?

Koi antar nahi hai. Dev Deepawali Kartik Purnima ki hi shaam ka naam hai, alag din nahi. 2026 mein dono 24 November, Tuesday ko hain. Kartik Purnima poore din ka parv hai, subah snan-daan se shuru hokar; Dev Deepawali us din suryast ke baad deep jalane wale hisse ko kehte hain. Varanasi ke 84 ghaton par yeh sabse bade paimane par manaya jata hai.

Why do we celebrate Kartik Purnima?

Because five traditions place a major event on this one full moon. Shiva destroyed the three cities of Tripurasura on this day, which is why it is also called Tripurari Purnima. Vishnu appeared as Matsya, his first avatar.

Kartikeya was born, and the month is named for him. The gods are said to have come down to Kashi to light lamps in celebration, which is Dev Deepawali. And Sikhs mark the birth of Guru Nanak Dev Ji on the same day.

Is Kartik Purnima and Raas Purnima the same?

Yes, they are the same day, read through a different tradition. Raas Purnima is the Vaishnava name for Kartik Purnima in Bengal and in Braj, marking the night Krishna performed the raas leela with the gopis. The Brahma Vaivarta Purana records that Krishna worshipped Radha on this full moon. So the date is identical; Raas Purnima describes what is being remembered rather than a separate festival.

Can I do Kartik Purnima snan at home instead of a river?

Yes, and most families do. Bathe before sunrise, facing east, adding a spoon of Ganga jal to the bucket if you have it, and say the sankalp aloud before you start. The tradition treats intention and timing as the working parts of the ritual rather than the specific body of water. A pre-dawn bath at home is a complete observance.

How many diyas should be lit for deep daan on Kartik Purnima?

The usual counts are 5, 11 or 21 lamps, lit after sunset. Some temples and households light 360 wicks, one for every day and night of the ritual year, and a few keep the older 720. There is no minimum that invalidates the offering. One lamp at the tulsi plant, lit at dusk with attention, is the core of it, and everything else is scale.

What should not be done on Kartik Purnima?

Cutting hair, shaving, trimming nails and cutting trees are all avoided, along with non-vegetarian food, alcohol, onion and garlic. Arguments and harsh words in the house are traditionally set aside too. The common thread is non-violence: the day commemorates the end of a war and the lighting of lamps afterwards, so it is kept without a blade of any kind.

Is Kartik Purnima a public holiday in India?

In 2026 it is, because Guru Nanak Jayanti falls on the same date, Tuesday 24 November, and that is a gazetted holiday across most of the country. Kartik Purnima on its own is a restricted or state holiday depending on where you are. Banks, offices and courier services will largely be shut on 24 November 2026.

What is the connection between Kartik Purnima and Tulsi Vivah?

They belong to the same five-day arc at the end of Kartik. Tulsi Vivah is performed between Dev Uthani Ekadashi and Kartik Purnima, and in 2026 it falls on 21 November with Kartik Purnima on the 24th. Some traditions hold that the Tulsi Vivah season closes on Kartik Purnima itself, which is why the tulsi plant receives the first lamp of the evening on this day.

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Sources for the dates and legends in this guide: Drik Panchang for the 2026 Purnima tithi and moonrise timings, the Wikipedia entries on Kartika Purnima, Dev Deepavali and Karthika Deepam, and the Brahma Vaivarta Purana account of the Radha worship as recorded in standard Puranic summaries.