What Amavasya is
Amavasya is the new moon, the last tithi of the dark half, Krishna paksha, when the Moon stands closest to the Sun and cannot be seen at all. It comes once a lunar month, twelve or thirteen times a year, and in the amanta calendars of South and West India it closes the month. The tradition gives Amavasya to the pitri, the ancestors of the family, more than to any one deity, and several named days fall on it: Somvati and Shani Amavasya by weekday, Mauni Amavasya in winter, Sarva Pitru Amavasya at the end of Pitru Paksha, and the Lakshmi puja of Diwali.
