01What Narak Chaturdashi is
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.
02The story told of it
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.
03How it is kept
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.
04How the day is chosen
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.
05Narak Chaturdashi in other years