Choti Diwali is the rare festival whose central act is finished before the sun is even up. Well before the New Delhi sunrise of 6:38 AM on Sunday, 8 November 2026, the household rises in the dark for the abhyanga snan — a full bath in warm oil and ubtan taken while it is still night. On Kartik Krishna Chaturdashi this ordinary wash becomes a rite: it is said to wash off 'narak', the impurity and dread the day is named for, so that you greet the light already cleansed. That single pre-dawn bath, not an evening puja, is what fixes the character of the day.
This year the day carries a second face. The Chaturdashi tithi is present at dawn but ends at 11:30 AM on the 8th, and Amavasya follows the same afternoon — so Narak Chaturdashi and Diwali fall on one date. The morning belongs to the abhyanga snan, and the evening of that same Sunday turns to Lakshmi Puja. In years when the tithis part, Choti Diwali sits a day before the main Diwali; in 2026 the two share 8 November, which is why the 'chhoti', the little Diwali, and the great one arrive together.
Choti Diwali 2026 at a glance
Festival day
Sun, 8 November 2026
Tithi
Kartik Krishna Chaturdashi
Abhyanga snan
Before sunrise, 6:38 AM (Delhi)
Chaturdashi ends
8 Nov, 11:30 AM
This year
Diwali the same evening (8 Nov)
Yama Deepam
Dhanteras evening, Fri 6 Nov
Kali Chaudas
The night before, Sat 7 Nov
The two timings that shape the day
The pre-dawn bath, and when Chaturdashi gives way to Diwali
Abhyanga snan
Before sunrise 6:38 AM
8 Nov, New Delhi — the rite that defines the day
Chaturdashi ends
8 Nov, 11:30 AM
Diwali / Lakshmi Puja the same evening
The day is held together by two moments. The first is the abhyanga snan, taken before the 8 November sunrise — 6:38 AM in New Delhi, later as you move west — while the Chaturdashi still holds the sky. The second is the tithi's own close: the Chaturdashi ends at 11:30 AM, and by evening Amavasya has taken over, opening Lakshmi Puja. So the morning belongs to Narak Chaturdashi and the night to Diwali, both on the same Sunday. Because sunrise shifts with your city, confirm your own before you set the alarm for the bath.
The rituals: abhyanga snan, Yama Deepam and Kali Chaudas
How the bath is done, the lamp for Yama, and the regional Kali puja
The abhyanga snan is done in the dark. The body is massaged with warm oil — traditionally sesame — and then with ubtan, a paste of gram flour, turmeric and herbs; some pass a little apamarga leaf over the head first. You bathe before sunrise, put on fresh clothes, and only then light the lamp, so the day begins clean. This is also why the day is called Roop Chaudas — the bath is held to restore roop, one's glow and grace. The Yama Deepam is a single earthen lamp, often set facing south, lit at dusk for Yama and for the household's protection from untimely death — the one lamp of the year kept for the lord of death. The panchang places it on the Trayodashi evening, which in 2026 is the Dhanteras evening, 6 November; families who keep it on the Chaturdashi evening light it on the 7th. In Gujarat, Maharashtra and parts of the west and south, Kali Chaudas is a night of Kali worship and, in some homes, protective rites against negativity. It is kept on the night the Chaturdashi holds midnight, which in 2026 is Saturday 7 November, the night before the snan.
Narakasura, and why the day merges with Diwali in 2026
The katha behind 'narak', and the tithis that meet this year
The name comes from Narakasura, the demon-king whose reign spread fear until Krishna, with Satyabhama, killed him on this Chaturdashi and freed the sixteen thousand he had imprisoned. Dying, Narakasura asked that the day be remembered not with mourning but with light and an early, cleansing bath — and so the abhyanga snan and the lamps stand for the end of that darkness. That is the thread to Diwali: both days celebrate light defeating a long fear, which is why Narak Chaturdashi leads straight into the festival of lamps. In 2026 the link is literal — the Chaturdashi ends before noon on 8 November and Amavasya, Lakshmi's own night, opens the same evening, so the demon's defeat and the goddess's welcome fall on a single day.
See the 8 November panchang and muhurat for your city
The sunrise and tithi above are for New Delhi. For your own city's sunrise, the Chaturdashi end, and the Lakshmi Puja and choghadiya windows on 8 November, open the live panchang.
Choti Diwali 2026 — your questions
Dates, the abhyanga snan, Kali Chaudas and the Diwali overlap