Kārttikai Dīpam (Vaiṣṇava) 2138: Surat, Gujarat

Kārttikai Dīpam is one of the oldest festivals of Tamil Nadu and the wider Vaiṣṇava tradition: a festival of lights observed on the full moon (Pūrṇimā) of the Tamil month of Kārttikai, when the moon is united with the Kṛttikā nakṣatra. Rows of lamps (dīpam) are lit in homes, temples and along streets at dusk, giving the festival its name.

The observance marks the close of a month-long period of daily lamp-lighting that begins on Dīpāvalī and continues through Kārttikai māsam, culminating on the Pūrṇimā day itself. Temples hold special processions and light towering ceremonial lamps, while households light rows of clay lamps (agal vilakku) at the doorstep and courtyard as dusk falls.

Because the exact civil day on which Pūrṇimā and Kṛttikā nakṣatra are both cleanly present can shift from year to year (sometimes affected by the adjoining Caturdaśī or Bharaṇī nakṣatra 'bleeding' into the day, or by a solar transit or eclipse falling nearby) different Vaiṣṇava traditions apply their own established rule hierarchy to determine the correct observance day for a given city and year. The date shown here follows that Vaiṣṇava determination.