- Reference city
- Delhi (other cities in the table)
- Moon's nakshatra then
- Krittika (at about 5:25 pm on 24 November)
What Kartik Purnima is
Kartik Purnima is the full moon of the month Kartika. It is also called Tripuri Purnima, because Shiva is said to have defeated the demon Tripurasura on it, and Dev Deepawali, the festival of lamps on the ghats of Varanasi.
In the traditional lunar calendar Guru Nanak Jayanti is kept on the same Purnima, though Sikh institutions announce their own date.
The morning bath in a river (Ganga snan) follows the Purnima that is running at sunrise, and the evening lamps follow the Purnima that covers the evening. This page uses the evening, and gives the sunrise reading for the bath.
How Kartik Purnima is commonly observed
- A morning bath in the Ganga or another river, or at home with a thought of it.
- Lamps are floated on rivers or lit on ghats and at temples in the evening.
- Satyanarayan Katha is held in many homes.
- At Pushkar in Rajasthan a large fair is held around this Purnima.
- Sikh gurdwaras mark Guru Nanak's birth with prayer and a shared meal.
These are common practices. Families and regions differ, and none of them is needed to read the date on this page.
The date for 2026, worked out
A tithi is the time in which the Moon gains 12 degrees on the Sun. Purnima is tithi number 15 of the bright fortnight, when the Moon is 168 to 180 degrees ahead of the Sun. By the chart engine it begins 23 November at about 11:40 pm and ends 24 November at about 8:25 pm, Indian time.
The main rite is held in the evening, in the pradosh, the 2 hours 24 minutes after sunset, so the day is the one on which the tithi covers more of that window. Delhi's sunrise, sunset and the rule's moment are below.
| Date | Sunrise | Sunset | Evening window, Delhi | Purnima covers |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monday, 23 November 2026 | 6:49 am | 5:25 pm | 5:25 pm to 7:49 pm | none of it |
| Tuesday, 24 November 2026 | 6:50 am | 5:24 pm | 5:24 pm to 7:48 pm | all of it |
On only one day does Purnima reach the evening after sunset (pradosh) in Delhi: Tuesday, 24 November 2026. There is no tie to break. Mumbai gives the same day. At sunrise in Delhi on 24 November (6:50 am) Purnima is already running, so the morning bath also belongs to this day.
Why calendars can differ on Kartik Purnima
This tithi is in the bright fortnight after the new moon that closes Ashwin, so it belongs to Kartika in both the purnimanta and the amanta calendars.
The same rule at other cities, for the day or days the tithi touches:
| City | Date | Evening begins (sunset) | Purnima covers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Delhi | 23 November | 5:25 pm | none of it |
| Delhi | 24 November | 5:24 pm | all of it |
| Mumbai | 23 November | 5:59 pm | none of it |
| Mumbai | 24 November | 5:59 pm | all of it |
The Purnima begins late the night before and ends in the evening, so the bath and the evening lamps fall on the same civil day this year, but in other years they can split. Sikh Gurpurab follows its own announced date, which can differ from the lunar-calendar date.
Method and limits
Positions come from the same engine that draws the free kundli, with the Lahiri ayanamsa. The tithi comes from the angle between the Sun and the Moon, so it does not depend on the ayanamsa.
Sunrise, sunset and moonrise are for the upper edge of the body with standard refraction, in Indian Standard Time. Tithi times are shown to the nearest five minutes because other panchangs can differ by a minute or so, and a different city moves sunrise and moonrise by minutes to an hour or more.
Regional traditions differ, and for the day and hour you keep the observance, follow your local panchang or temple. The full list of settings is on the method page.
Your own chart on this day
Dates on this page describe the sky only. The nakshatra finder and the current dasha tool show the facts of your own chart for any birth, and the festival calendar for 2026 lists the other festivals of the season with their dates.
Calculated with the Lahiri ayanamsa and whole sign houses; every setting is on the method page. Last checked 15 October 2026.