Diwali 2026 is Sunday, November 8 in every continental US time zone, the same date as in India. That’s good news for the roughly 4.4 million Indian Americans who would otherwise be fitting puja prep around a work day.

The five-day schedule

  • November 6 (Friday): Dhanteras. Buy gold, silver, or a new utensil after sunset. Many Indian jewellery stores in Edison, Artesia, and Devon Avenue run Dhanteras-specific promotions.
  • November 7 (Saturday): Choti Diwali / Narak Chaturdashi. An oil bath before sunrise and a few diyas in the evening.
  • November 8 (Sunday): Diwali. Lakshmi Puja during Pradosh Kaal. The big night.
  • November 9 (Monday): Govardhan Puja / Annakut.
  • November 10 (Tuesday): Bhai Dooj.

Why you cannot just convert the IST muhurat time

The traditional Lakshmi Puja muhurat is computed for Pradosh Kaal, the period around sunset, for a specific city. Converting an India-based clock time (say, “6 PM IST”) to Eastern or Pacific time does not give you your local Pradosh Kaal, since sunset happens at a completely different local clock hour in each US time zone and city.

To make this concrete: sunset in New York on November 8 is 4:44 PM ET, in Los Angeles 4:54 PM PT and in Houston 5:29 PM CT, while in New Delhi it is 5:31 PM IST (Drik Panchang). If you subtract 10.5 hours from Delhi’s IST muhurat time to get Eastern Time, you’d get a morning window, which has nothing to do with your local Pradosh Kaal. The conversion approach is fundamentally wrong for this calculation.

Computing your own local muhurat

The correct approach is to find your own city’s sunset time on November 8, and treat the roughly two-hour window from sunset onward as your local Pradosh Kaal, avoiding Rahu Kaal within that window.

Drik Panchang’s Lakshmi Puja muhurat for November 8 (local standard time): New York 5:04 PM to 6:52 PM, Chicago 4:55 PM to 6:43 PM, Houston 5:52 PM to 7:47 PM, Phoenix 5:52 PM to 7:45 PM, Los Angeles 5:16 PM to 7:08 PM, San Francisco 5:24 PM to 7:15 PM. That’s earlier than many families expect. If you’re used to doing puja at 7 or 8 PM because that’s when it happens in India, check your own sunset time first. In November, most of the US gets dark early.

Daylight Saving Time ends right before Diwali

One thing to watch: Daylight Saving Time in the US ends on November 1, 2026. By November 8, clocks have already fallen back. If you looked up sunset times for your city in October and noted “sunset at 6:15 PM,” that was on EDT or CDT. After the clocks change, the same astronomical sunset reads as 5:15 PM EST or CST. Don’t let the time change catch you off guard. Check the November 8 time specifically, not an October reference.

Checking your city’s timing

Use the muhurat page with your US city selected to see that day’s sunset, Rahu Kaal and Abhijit Muhurat, and time Lakshmi Puja within the favorable window for your own location.