Diwali Lakshmi Puja 2026: Date, Muhurat & Puja Vidhi

When Is Diwali Lakshmi Puja 2026?

Diwali Lakshmi Puja 2026 falls on Sunday, 8 November. It is kept on the Amavasya of the Diwali fortnight, and it is the day the whole festival turns on: the evening the house is lit, the account books are worshipped and Goddess Lakshmi is invited in.

The Amavasya Tithi runs across two calendar dates this year and the two are not equally usable, so the date is worth confirming rather than assuming.

Diwali 2026 Date, Tithi and Muhurat

All the timings above are the published figures for Surat, and one distinction in that table is worth holding on to. A tithi turns at a single astronomical moment, so 11:27 AM and 12:31 PM read the same across the country in IST. The lagna windows depend on where you are standing, so a Delhi or Mumbai listing will not match Surat, and a household outside Surat and its surrounding towns should use a Panchang set to its own location.

Our Choghadiya timings cover the auspicious windows across the day, and the guide on choosing a shubh muhurat explains how these windows are worked out.

Why Lakshmi Puja Falls on 8 November and Not the 9th

This is the question that produces more disagreement than any other in the Diwali calendar, and the answer is clean once you know which rule applies.

The Amavasya Tithi begins at 11:27 AM on 8 November and ends at 12:31 PM on 9 November. It touches both dates, and it covers the sunrise of only one of them, the 9th. Anyone applying the familiar udaya tithi rule, which assigns an observance to the date whose sunrise the tithi covers, would land on 9 November.

That rule is not the one that governs here. Dharma Sindhu, Nirnaya Sindhu and Vratraj all place Lakshmi Puja in Pradosh, the period just after sunset, and require the Amavasya Tithi to be prevailing at that time. The test is therefore not what the tithi is doing at sunrise. It is whether Amavasya reaches the evening.

Apply that test to the two dates and only one survives. On 9 November the tithi ends at 12:31 PM, in the middle of the day, so by the time the evening comes there is no Amavasya left. On 8 November it begins at 11:27 AM and runs right through the evening, so the Pradosh period on that date sits inside Amavasya exactly as the digests require. Sunday, 8 November carries Lakshmi Puja.

This is also why the evening window is described as the main one rather than as a preference. The date and the window come from the same rule. If the puja did not belong to Pradosh, the date itself would be different.

Pradosh Kaal and What It Means for Your Timing

Pradosh is the period that begins just after sunset. In the classical reckoning it is a specific stretch of the early evening rather than a loose word for nightfall, and it is the part of the day in which Lakshmi is invited into the house.

Two practical points follow. An early morning Lakshmi Puja, which feels natural to a family used to beginning every puja soon after the bath, is not the form kept for this day: the house is cleaned and prepared through the day and the puja waits for the evening. And Pradosh is worked out from your own sunset, which is why published windows differ from city to city while the tithi timings do not. The Surat figures on this page already account for that.

The Three Lagna Windows and Which One to Choose

The published muhurats for the day are given as lagna windows, the periods in which a particular sign is rising on the eastern horizon. Three are published with Surat times for 2026.

Vrishabha Lagna, 06:24 PM to 08:23 PM. This is the main window and the one most households in Surat use. It runs for one hour and fifty nine minutes and it sits inside Pradosh, just after sunset, which is where the digests place the puja. If you take nothing else from this page, take this window.

Kumbha Lagna, 01:35 PM to 03:10 PM. An afternoon window of one hour and thirty five minutes, beginning after the Amavasya Tithi has started. It is the afternoon alternative where a household genuinely cannot assemble in the evening, or where a shop must complete its puja before the evening rush.

Simha Lagna, 12:51 AM to 03:01 AM on 9 November. A window of two hours and ten minutes in the deep night, the late alternative where the evening is impossible, and for households whose tradition places the puja at midnight. The tithi is still running at that hour, so the window is valid.

Choose one and keep the whole puja inside it. If the family is large and the vidhi is a full one, start early enough in the window that the aarti and the prasad are not being hurried at the end of it.

Who Is Worshipped on Lakshmi Puja Night

Goddess Lakshmi presides over the day, but she is not worshipped alone, and knowing who else belongs on the chowki saves a scramble at the last minute.

Lord Ganesh is worshipped first, as he is at the beginning of every puja. Kuber, the keeper of the treasury, is worshipped alongside Lakshmi in many households, and where a family keeps a safe, a cash box or a locker, it is worshipped as Kuber’s seat.

Saraswati is included wherever the account books or the tools of a trade are being worshipped. The books belong to her as much as they belong to Lakshmi, which is why the business observance is called Sharda Pujan as often as it is called Chopda Pujan.

Lakshmi Puja Vidhi at Home

Most families perform this puja themselves. A pandit is called where the fuller vidhi with sankalp and havan is wanted, where a business is holding Chopda Pujan, or where a new home or shop is being worshipped for the first time.

Steps for the Lakshmi Puja

1. Clean the house thoroughly during the day, and the puja room in particular. The cleaning is treated as part of the observance rather than as preparation for it.
2. Prepare the chowki with a clean red cloth, and lay the rangoli at the entrance and before the puja place.
3. Place the murtis or images of Lakshmi and Ganesh on the chowki, facing the direction your family keeps, and establish a kalash with water, mango leaves and a coconut.
4. Bathe and wear clean or new clothes, and be ready before the window opens, since it is under two hours long.
5. Take the sankalp as the window begins, stating your name and gotra and the puja being undertaken.
6. Light the deep, and light the row of diyas that will be placed around the house after the puja.
7. Bathe the murtis with panchamrit, made of milk, curd, ghee, honey and sugar, then with clean water.
8. Offer chandan, kumkum, haldi, akshat, and flowers, with lotus for Lakshmi where it can be had.
9. Worship the coins, the ornaments, the cash box or the account books, placing them before the deity, and offer them the same kumkum and akshat.
10. Offer the naivedya, with kheer, batasha, sweets and fruit, and light the dhoop.
11. Recite the Shri Suktam or the Lakshmi Chalisa according to your family practice, and read the katha if your household keeps one.
12. Perform the aarti, distribute the prasad, and give dakshina and daan before the window closes.

After the puja the diyas are placed at the door, along the balcony and at the windows, and the main door is left open for a while. That last part is not decoration. The house has just invited a guest and the door is left open for her.

Lakshmi Puja Samagri

Keep the samagri ready the previous day. The window is under two hours long and the day itself is busy from morning onward, so this is not an evening to be sending someone to the market.

• Murtis or images of Lakshmi and Ganesh, and a chowki with a clean red cloth
• Kalash with water, mango leaves and a coconut
• Diyas in quantity, along with oil, ghee and cotton wicks
• Haldi, kumkum, chandan, akshat and abir
• Lotus and other fresh flowers, and a garland for the deities
• Panchamrit, made of milk, curd, ghee, honey and sugar
• Kheer, batasha, sweets, fruit and the naivedya your household prepares
• Coins, ornaments, the cash box or the account books to be worshipped
• Dhoop, camphor, a matchbox and the aarti thali
• Supari, paan leaves, moli, rangoli colours and dakshina
• Silver or copper coin with the Lakshmi Ganesh impression, where your family keeps one

Your pandit may add items specific to your family tradition or to the form of the puja being kept, so confirm the list a few days ahead.

Chopda Pujan and Sharda Pujan for Businesses

For a trading city this is the part of Diwali that carries the most weight. Chopda Pujan is the worship of the account books, and Surat keeps it seriously.

The new books are placed before the deities and sanctified. Auspicious marks are made on the first page, and the book is set before Lakshmi, Ganesh and Saraswati so that the year’s accounts begin under their blessing rather than with an ordinary entry. The working year itself does not restart that night. In Gujarat the shops reopen and the first entries are made on Labh Pancham, which falls on 14 November, and that day has its own morning muhurat. Where a firm has moved to a digital ledger the practice has adapted rather than lapsed, with a symbolic book kept and worshipped in place of the bound one.

Most firms keep the puja in the same Vrishabha Lagna window as households, after the shop or the office has closed, with the staff and often their families present. The pedhi is cleaned and decorated during the day, the safe and the cash box are worshipped along with the books, and the puja closes with prasad for everyone who came.

Pandit Ramkishan Joshi performs Chopda Pujan and the annual Lakshmi puja at business premises under the business and office puja service, and a new shop or office being opened this season is covered there as well.

The Diwali Sequence and the Gujarati New Year

Diwali in Gujarat is a sequence of days rather than a single night, and Lakshmi Puja is the one this page covers. Dhanteras on 6 November, Kali Chaudas on the 7th, Govardhan Puja and Annakut on the 9th, Bestu Varas on the 10th, Bhai Bij on the 11th and Labh Pancham on the 14th are each kept in their own right, and each has its own vidhi and its own windows. Each will be covered in its own guide.

One thing to note about 2026 in particular. Govardhan Puja and the Gujarati new year usually fall on the same day, and most families expect them to. This year they do not. Kartik Shukla Pratipada begins at 12:31 PM on 9 November, which leaves Govardhan Puja on the 9th, in its afternoon window, while Bestu Varas is kept on the 10th, the day Pratipada holds sunrise. Plan the annakut and the new year visits as two separate days rather than one.

Bestu Varas, the Gujarati new year, deserves a word even so, because it shapes how the Lakshmi Puja evening is planned. Business households treat the two as a pair: the books are worshipped at Lakshmi Puja, and the new year opens the working year those books will record. Families plan their travel and their staff arrangements around the whole stretch rather than around one evening, which is exactly why a pandit’s evening fills so early.

Diyas, Rangoli and the Open Door

The customs of the night are not decoration attached to a puja. Each of them says something the puja is also saying.

The diyas are lit in rows, at the door, along the parapet and at the windows, and the light is meant to be visible from outside. A lamp where only the household can see it is a lamp in a room. A lamp at the threshold is an announcement.

The rangoli is laid at the entrance because a guest is being received and the threshold is where a guest is met. In many Gujarati homes small footprints are drawn leading inward from the door, marking Lakshmi’s path into the house.

The door itself is left open after the puja, and families differ on how long. What matters is the gesture, which is the whole logic of the night in one act: the house is cleaned, the lamp is lit, the door is open, and the invitation is real.

What Families Most Often Get Wrong

A few things go wrong every year, and all of them are avoidable.

The most common is treating the whole evening as the muhurat. The window is 06:24 PM to 08:23 PM, not the evening in general, and a puja begun at half past nine has missed it. Fix a start time inside the window and work backwards from it.

The second is using timings printed for another city. The tithi figures are national but the lagna windows are local, and a listing worked out for Delhi or Mumbai will not match Surat.

The third is leaving the samagri to the day itself. Every shop in the city is either shut or besieged, and the window will not wait.

Diwali in Surat: What to Plan Around

Surat empties and fills at Diwali in a way that has to be planned for. The textile markets and the diamond units close for the stretch, staff travel home, and a great many families travel out of the city and return for the new year.

Two local points matter most. Traffic and parking near the markets are difficult on the evening itself, so a pandit travelling between Chopda Pujan bookings in Ring Road or Sahara Darwaja needs realistic gaps between them. State your location clearly when you book.

And where a family keeps a puja at home as well as at the pedhi, the two compete for the same two hour window. Decide early which one gets the Vrishabha muhurat and which is kept at the alternative window.

Booking a Pandit for Lakshmi Puja and Chopda Pujan

Most households keep the Lakshmi Puja themselves, and the vidhi above is well within reach of a family that has the samagri ready and starts on time. A pandit is called where the fuller vidhi with sankalp and havan is wanted, where a firm is holding Chopda Pujan for its staff, or where a new shop or office is being worshipped for the first time.

Pandit Ramkishan Joshi performs Diwali Lakshmi Puja and Chopda Pujan at homes, shops, offices and factory premises across Surat and the surrounding areas, and can confirm the exact window for your own location.

Festival dates are usually taken about a month in advance, and this one is the tightest of the year. Every household and every firm in the city needs the same two hour evening on the same date, so a pandit can reach only a limited number of premises inside it. To fix a time, get in touch with your location, whether the puja is at home or at business premises, and which window you intend to use, and the samagri list will be shared in advance.