When is Guru Nanak Jayanti 2026?

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Timings on this page are computed for Surat.

The whole table below is recomputed for the city you pick. That is not cosmetic: an observance decided at moonrise, such as Karwa Chauth, can genuinely fall on a different day in two cities, and the moment the fast ends differs by more than an hour across India.

Computed for Surat

The date in Surat

Tuesday, 24 November 2026

Guru Nanak Jayanti is not a Gregorian date. It is Shukla paksha tithi 15 of Kartika in the amanta reckoning, and the Gregorian day it lands on moves by up to a month between years because twelve lunations fall about eleven days short of a solar year.

Tithi

Purnima, Shukla paksha

Lunar month

Kartika (amanta)

Tithi begins

23 Nov, 23:43

Tithi ends

24 Nov, 20:23

Decided at

Sunrise

Sunrise in Surat

24 Nov, 06:54

Sunrise in Surat falls at 06:54 on that day, and that is the instant the tithi has to be running at for the day to carry the observance. It is computed for this city rather than assumed, because it is what decides the date.

The two instants above are the astronomy and are not in dispute. The day is an interpretation of them: this observance is decided at sunrise, so it belongs to the day whose sunrise the tithi carries — not simply to the day the tithi begins.

Meaning and observance

What is Guru Nanak Jayanti (Gurpurab)?

Guru Nanak Jayanti — Gurpurab, the Prakash Purab of Guru Nanak Dev Ji — marks the birth of Guru Nanak Dev Ji (1469–1539), the first of the ten Sikh Gurus and the founder of Sikhism. It is kept on Kartik Purnima, the full moon of the month of Kartik, so its date on the Gregorian calendar moves every year.

• He was born at Rai Bhoi di Talwandi — now Nankana Sahib, in Pakistan — and spent his last years at Kartarpur, on the river Ravi.
• Gurdwaras hold an Akhand Path, the unbroken reading of the Guru Granth Sahib over about 48 hours, which ends on the morning of the Gurpurab. In the days before, Prabhat Pheris — early-morning hymn processions — go round the neighbourhood, and a Nagar Kirtan led by the Panj Pyare, carrying the Guru Granth Sahib, goes through the town, usually the day before.
• On the day there is kirtan and katha through the morning and langar, the community kitchen, open to all; gurdwaras and homes are lit at night.
• The date is Kartik Purnima at sunrise, the same day as Kartik Purnima's own page gives, which is the day Gurpurab has been kept in each recent year. Dev Deepawali, dated by the full moon at dusk, sometimes falls the evening before.

Guru Nanak Jayanti across five years

Two years back, this year, and two ahead. Past years are kept rather than dropped so you can check the engine against a calendar you already have.

Every row is computed for Surat from the same ephemeris, not looked up. Sunrise decides which day a tithi names, and sunrise differs across India by more than an hour, so a date computed for Delhi can be a day out elsewhere.

Why calendars disagree about this date

There is no single authority that settles a Hindu festival date, and the divergence is genuine rather than sloppy. Three causes account for almost all of it.

1. A tithi rarely starts at sunrise. One that is running at the deciding moment on two days — or on none — is claimed by both days under different rules.
2. Month reckoning. North India runs purnimanta, the south and west amanta. The same dark fortnight carries different month names in the two, so an observance defined as "krishna X of month Y" can land a full lunation apart.
3. Which moment decides. Most vratas belong to the day whose sunrise carries the tithi, but not all: this one is decided at sunrise. Almanacs that apply the sunrise rule to everything move several festivals by a day.

So this page shows its working. If your pandit or your family almanac gives a different day, the instants above will usually show you exactly why — and that is more useful than a date asserted without one.

Related timing

• The full vrat and tyohar calendar
• Panchang for your city — tithi, nakshatra, yoga, karana
• Choghadiya windows for the day
• Free kundli — see what this period touches in your own chart