In short
Kartik Purnima is a full-moon observance observed according to the Hindu calendar. Its date and customary practices can vary by region and local Panchang.
The story
Kartik Purnima closes the sacred month of Kartik and gathers several important Hindu traditions into one full-moon day. In Shaiva tradition it is Tripurari Purnima, recalling Shiva's destruction of the three aerial cities of the demon forces known collectively as Tripura. The victory is remembered as the restoration of cosmic order, and in Varanasi the evening becomes Dev Deepawali, when ghats and temples are illuminated with thousands of lamps. Vaishnava traditions also give Kartik Purnima great importance as the culmination of Kartik observances and the end of Bhishma Panchaka. Sacred bathing, deep-daan, temple worship and charity are widespread. In parts of western India the day has pilgrimage and fair traditions, while Sikh history also places Guru Nanak Gurpurab around the same full moon according to the lunar calendar. The day therefore combines light, pilgrimage, vrata completion and gratitude at the end of one of the most devotional months of the Hindu year.
Retold from the Shiva Purana
Why it matters
Kartik Purnima is valued for devotion, family tradition and the spiritual or seasonal meaning attached to the day.
What people do
Lamps are floated on a river or a tank at dusk - Dev Diwali, the Diwali of the gods, kept especially at Varanasi. In Gujarat the Shamlaji fair falls on it, and people walk to it. Bathing at a tirtha at first light is the older observance and the reason the day is kept at rivers at all.
Retold from the Gujarati household practice
Told differently elsewhere
Varanasi lights the whole length of its ghats and draws the largest crowd of its year. Pushkar holds its camel fair to the same full moon. Sikhs keep it as Guru Nanak's birth. In Odisha it is Boita Bandana, small boats floated in memory of the merchants who sailed to Java and Bali; in Gujarat, fairs at Shamlaji and Somnath.
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