Kartik Purnima and Dev Deepawali, 2026

Kartik Purnima 2026 is Tuesday 24 November. In Varanasi that night is Dev Deepawali, the lamps along the ghats. Guru Nanak Jayanti falls on the same civil date. Purnima tithi begins late on the 23rd and runs through the evening of the 24th, so the dip and the lamps belong to Tuesday.

A cousin in Varanasi sends a photograph of the ghats and a cousin in Nairobi lights two diyas on a balcony and feels she has missed it. She has not missed the tithi if the moon is full where she is. She has missed the Ganga, which is a place, not a tithi. The purnima travels. The ghat does not. Light what you can light. Do not book a non-refundable dash to the river because a reel said the night is once in a year. It is once a year, and it will be back.

Chandra’s second great night of the season

Sharad Purnima was 25 October, with the exact full moon on the 26th, inside two retrogrades. Kartik Purnima is the full moon after Diwali, with Shukra and Budha direct again. Chandra is the graha of the mind and the tide of a household. A purnima in Kartik is when that mind is asked to be quiet and bright at once. If you already keep a Monday practice, Tuesday this year is still Chandra’s night because the tithi is purnima, not because Tuesday is Chandra’s weekday. Weekday and tithi are different clocks. Jyotish uses both and does not collapse them.

Guru is in Simha. Shani is still retrograde in Meena until 11 December. The lamps do not cancel either transit. They mark a lunar month. The transits are in the October calendar and the December stations that follow.

Questions people keep asking

When is Dev Deepawali in 2026?

Tuesday 24 November, with Kartik Purnima. The tithi starts late on the 23rd.

Is Guru Nanak Jayanti the same festival?

It falls on the same civil date in 2026. It is a Sikh observance of Guru Nanak’s birth anniversary, not another name for the Varanasi ghat lamps.