And now (I think) I figured out why Lakshmi Puja falls on Tues. Oct. 25 according to the temple calendar instead of Wed. 26 as all other "western" sites show.
OK, here we go... http://www.math.nus.edu.sg/aslaksen/...deepavali.html
I went down to http://www.math.nus.edu.sg/aslaksen/...li.html#Tithis
The bold italics are mine.
Chaturdasi ends 19:42 Oct. 25; Amavasya ends 15:52 Oct. 26. I presume Amavasya begins 19:43 Oct. 25 (the site says a tithi can be more or less than 24 hours).
- In northern India the main Diwali celebration is Lakshmi Puja on Amavasya. However, Lakshmi Puja is supposed to be done during a time period called Pradosha. It is the first 2/15 of the night, or about the first 1:36 hours after sunset. It is more important that it is done during the Amavasya tithi than during the Amavasya day, so as we will see below, it will sometimes fall on the Chaturdasi day.
Sunset on Oct. 25 is 18:05; if Amavasya (tithi) begins 19:43, that is 1:38 hours after sunset, when Lakshmi Puja should be done, making the temple calendar more accurate and true to the Hindu calendar than other sites. Well, I should hope so.
I know I've overthought this, but if I got it right, then I learned something. If I got it wrong, oh well... I'll just go by the temple calendar for holidays and take their word for it.
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