Happy Diwali and Happy New Year
Diwali & Dhanateras Lakshmi Puja Muhurta along with puja vidhi book available at
Dhanteras 2013 Lakshmi Puja Dates
USA/Canada: October 31st 2013
West Indies, UK, Europe: October 31st 2013
India, Australia, NewZeland, Malaysia: November 1st 2013
Diwali 2013 Lakshmi Puja Dates
USA/Canada: November 2nd 2013
West Indies, UK, Europe: Novemberr 2nd 2013
India, Australia, NewZeland, Malaysia: November 3rd 2013
In short only if the earth is flat all indian festivals would be on the same date as India. The English calendar is different from indian calendar. Indian calendar is based on the block of 12 degree distance between the sun and the moon. They keep moving in heavens. Also other factors time zone, local sunrise, sunset, moonrise play important role.
If earth was flat the the sun and moon will rise and set all over the world at the same time and we will not have time zones and indian festival dates would become like English calendar.
Important: Tithi, Nakshatra, Yoga and Karna are based off the distance between the Sun and the Moon. Each 12 degree distance between them is called a tithi. These Tithi, Nakshatra, Yoga and Karana start and end at the same time in the world like any celestial events and hence if a celestial event happen in India during morning it will happen in USA a day before and in Australia a day after. After this begin and end time determination of Indian Date -- Tithi, the other factors like local sunrise, sunset, moonrise is considered. Hence an Indian festival date will be different in outside of India.
But unfortunately the earth is round and hence we have time zones, longitudes, latitudes, different times for the sunrise and the sunset. Each festival has different rule. Diwali Lakshmi puja is done when amavasya prevails 144 minutes past sunset -- pradosha kala. Tithes don't start at 0:00 hours at midnight they start and end any time. Their duration also is not exactly 24 hours but they vary from 19 to 28 hours (approximately). When amavasya starts before sunset and next day when it ends before the sunset we take previous day for Lakshmi puja but for oil bath we take next day. Now if you apply time zones things change. For example if amavasya starts at 5 pm on say nov 5 in California then in India it will start on November 6th at 5:30 pm due to time zone and then local sunset.
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nArAyaNA smR^iti
पंडित महेश शास्त्री
Pundit Mahesh Shastriji
Tel: (425) 445-9117
http://www.mypanchang.com
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Panchang for 2013: http://www.mypanchang.com/panchangam2013.php
2013 Festivals: http://www.mypanchang.com/hindufestivals2013.php
Nakshatras names in Sanskrit / Telugu, Tamil,
Malayalam, and baby naming letters: http://www.mypanchang.com/nakshatras.html