Diwali 2024 calendar

Background

Diwali's date is set by the Hindu lunisolar calendar rather than the fixed Gregorian calendar, and specifically by the amavasya (new moon) tithi of the month of Kartik, which does not fall on the same Gregorian date each year and does not always align neatly with a single sunset-to-sunset day. This entry records how the five-day festival calendar fell in 2024, along with the tithi-based reasoning behind it.

The 2024 Calendar

Dhanteras fell on Tuesday, 29 October 2024, marking the Trayodashi tithi of Kartik Krishna Paksha and the day associated with Dhanvantari and the start of Diwali-season purchases of gold and silver. Naraka Chaturdashi, or Choti Diwali, followed on the Chaturdashi tithi, which most panchangs placed on 31 October, close to the main festival day.

The main Diwali night — Lakshmi Puja, observed on the amavasya tithi — generated unusual public attention in 2024 because the amavasya tithi began on the afternoon of 31 October and continued into the evening of 1 November, meaning the auspicious evening worship window (pradosh kaal) fell within amavasya on both dates depending on how a given region's panchang calculated sunset and tithi boundaries. As a result, most of India, including Delhi, Mumbai, and much of the north and west, observed the principal Lakshmi Puja and fireworks on 31 October 2024, the date also recognized as the public holiday by the Indian government, while some regions and temple traditions, including parts of Uttar Pradesh such as Varanasi and Mathura, observed the main puja a day later, on 1 November.

Govardhan Puja followed on 2 November 2024, commemorating Krishna's lifting of Mount Govardhan and marked by the Annakut food offering, and the five-day cycle closed with Bhai Dooj on 3 November 2024.

Why the Date Moves Each Year

Because tithis are defined by the moon's angular position relative to the sun rather than by a fixed number of hours, a given tithi can begin and end at any time of day and can occasionally span, or straddle, two consecutive sunrise-to-sunrise solar days — the source of the 2024 discrepancy. This is also why Diwali's Gregorian-calendar date shifts by two to three weeks from year to year, generally falling between mid-October and mid-November, and why regional panchangs, which differ slightly in their astronomical calculation conventions, such as amanta versus purnimanta month reckoning, can occasionally diverge by a day on exactly when a given festival should be observed.

Puja Timing and Markets

Lakshmi Puja is traditionally performed during pradosh kaal, the period beginning at sunset and lasting roughly the first third of the night, since Lakshmi is believed to visit homes after dusk on this night; the specific auspicious window (muhurat) is recalculated annually by astrologers and varies by city according to local sunset time. India's major stock exchanges, the Bombay Stock Exchange and National Stock Exchange, also hold a brief, symbolic "Muhurat Trading" session on the evening of Lakshmi Puja, a practice dating to 1957 and considered auspicious for beginning the new financial year associated with the Vikram Samvat calendar, which starts the day after Diwali.