Narak Chaturdashi 2026 is on Sunday, 8 November 2026, on the Krishna Chaturdashi tithi, in New Delhi. The tithi runs from 10:48 on 7 November to 11:28 on 8 November. The Abhyang Snan muhurat is from 05:41 to 06:38.
Timings for New Delhi, checked 26 October 2026.
Each event with its day and its time, worked out for New Delhi by the rule the tradition gives for it.
Chaturdashi: 10:48 on 7 November to 11:28 on 8 November
Narak Chaturdashi is the fourteenth day of the dark half of Kartika, the day before Lakshmi Puja and the second of Diwali's five days. In the north it is called Choti Diwali, the small Diwali, and Roop Chaudas; in the south it is often the main day of Deepavali itself, begun before dawn with an oil bath and lamps.
The Bhagavata Purana tells of Narakasura, an asura who had seized the earrings of Aditi, the mother of the gods, and held sixteen thousand women captive in his city. Krishna went against him with Satyabhama, who in many tellings is the one who overcame him, and the captives were set free. The tradition remembers the day as the end of his oppression, and the name of the day comes from his.
The day begins before sunrise with Abhyang Snan: the body is rubbed with sesame oil and ubtan, a paste of gram flour, turmeric and herbs, and bathed while the Moon is up. In the south new clothes follow and the first crackers of Deepavali. Lamps are lit at the door and around the house in the evening, and in Gujarat and parts of the west the night is kept as Kali Chaudas with worship of Kali or Hanuman.
Narak Chaturdashi is kept on the morning Chaturdashi is current at moonrise, a little before dawn, because the Abhyang Snan, the oil bath of the day, is taken between moonrise and sunrise.
Short answers about Narak Chaturdashi, for New Delhi.
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Add to my calendarThe oil bath of Narak Chaturdashi: sesame oil and ubtan rubbed into the body and washed off before sunrise. The tradition places it between moonrise, which on this day comes a little before dawn, and sunrise, while Chaturdashi is current.
Yes. Choti Diwali is the north Indian name for the day before Lakshmi Puja, and Roop Chaudas another. In some years the morning bath of Narak Chaturdashi and the evening of Lakshmi Puja fall on the same day, because Chaturdashi is current at dawn and Amavasya by sunset.
On Sunday, 8 November 2026 in New Delhi.
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