Tithi and Diwali 2018

We, the Hindus (irregardless of education level) have a  little to no interest in understanding how the Diwali (or any other Hindu festival) dates are calculated. Normally the folks in USA will call back home to find out the dates of important Hindu holidays, and then perpetuate the same dates to our friends and  also on internet.

We assume  that since the Sun rises first in India, so a festival would be first celebrated in India and then it will be followed in USA (just like New year celebration).

Unfortunately that is not the case for Hindu religious Holidays. Our Holidays are based on Tithi, and tithis are not based on sunrise/sunset (see at the bottom for the definition of tithi).

At any given point in time, Tithi is the same all over the globe. So you would need to convert the day/time to your location.

Diwali is celebrated on the night of Amavasya (a common knowledge). This year in India Amavasya starts at  10:28 PM on Nov 6th and ends at 9:32 PM on Nov 7th. So when this time is translated to USA, Amavasya starts at  11:58 AM on Nov 6th and ends at 11:01 AM on Nov 7th. Now, if you decide to do lakshmi pooja on Nov 7th evening, you will miss the night of Amavasya.

I have listed below the days of upcoming Hindu festivals for both India and USA.

You can also refer to Drik Pachang  (link below) and set it to Randolph NJ location

Drik Panchang for upcoming Holidays

Few other links showing the Diwali celebration on Nov 6th in USA
Arsha vidya gurukulam

Bridgewater calendar

Tithi in USA

Tithi timing In India

Both India and USA mapping

Definition of Tithi:

Tithi: The moment of new Moon, or that point of time when the longitudes of Sun and Moon are equal is called ‘amavasya’. The tithi is the time taken by the Moon in increasing its distance from the Sun by 12 degrees. The complete revolution of the Moon (29.5 days) occupies 30 tithis for 360 degrees. Since the motions of the Sun and Moon are always varying in speed the length of a tithi constantly alters

 In other words, a tithi ends at the same instant of time for all places on Earth and a tithi is not sensitive to the longitude (or latitude) of the region. 

The moment of Sunrise of course varies with longitude and therefore local time of Moon’s entry into any tithi will differ at different places. For the same reason expunction and repetition of tithis may differ by a day in different longitudes.