What Is Diwali? Festival of Lights — Date, History & 2026 Traditions

What Is Diwali?

Diwali — also written Divali and known across South India and South-East Asia as Deepavali — is the Festival of Lights, one of the most important festivals in Hinduism, Sikhism, Jainism, and Newar Buddhism. The name comes from the Sanskrit Dīpāvali, meaning "row of lights," after the rows of small oil lamps (diyas) that families light on the main night.

At its heart, Diwali symbolises the victory of light over darkness, good over evil, and knowledge over ignorance. Although the founding stories differ across faiths and regions, the festival's central image — a household lit from threshold to roof against the dark of the new-moon sky — is shared by more than a billion observers worldwide.

Diwali is a gazetted public holiday for India's central government calendar, listed by the National Portal of India from the Ministry of Personnel circular. It is also a public holiday in Nepal, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Malaysia, Mauritius, Fiji, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, and Suriname, and is observed informally by large diaspora communities in the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia, and South Africa.

When Is Diwali 2026?

The main day of Diwali — Lakshmi Puja — falls on Sunday, 8 November 2026.

Diwali is not a single day but a five-day festival. In 2026, the sequence runs:

Because Lakshmi Puja in 2026 falls on a Sunday, much of India and the diaspora effectively observes a long weekend, with many state governments and private employers granting additional leave on the Friday and Monday either side.

Why the Date Changes Each Year

Diwali is set by the Hindu lunisolar calendar (in much of North India, the Vikram Samvat; in the South, regional variants of the Shaka calendar). The main day of Diwali — Lakshmi Puja — always falls on Amavasya, the new-moon night of the Hindu month of Kartik.

A lunisolar calendar tracks both the phases of the moon (about 29.5 days per cycle) and the solar year (about 365.25 days). Twelve lunar months come up roughly eleven days short of a solar year, so Hindu calendars insert an extra month (Adhik Maas) every two to three years to keep the festivals aligned with the seasons. The result is that Diwali drifts within a window of roughly mid-October to mid-November on the Gregorian calendar, but never wanders out of autumn.

For reference, recent and upcoming Lakshmi Puja dates are:

The Five Days of Diwali

Each day of Diwali has its own rituals, deities, and customs. The festival builds from preparation and prosperity, peaks on the new-moon night of Lakshmi Puja, and closes with family bonds.

Day 1 — Dhanteras

Dhanteras (from dhan, wealth, and teras, the thirteenth lunar day) opens the festival. It is dedicated to Dhanvantari, the physician of the gods who emerged from the cosmic ocean carrying the nectar of immortality, and to Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth and prosperity.

The most visible custom is the purchase of gold, silver, or new utensils. Indian jewellery shops record their highest single-day sales of the year on Dhanteras, and the Reserve Bank of India tracks gold imports around the date as an economic indicator. Households also clean and decorate their entrances, and place a single lit diya outside the front door to invite Lakshmi in.

Day 2 — Naraka Chaturdashi (Choti Diwali)

The second day, also called Choti Diwali (Little Diwali) or Kali Chaudas in parts of western India, marks Krishna's defeat of the demon Narakasura, who had imprisoned 16,000 women. By tradition, families rise before sunrise for an abhyanga snan — a ritual oil bath — to symbolise washing away evil. In Tamil Nadu, this day is the main day of Deepavali, and it is when most fireworks are set off.

Day 3 — Diwali / Lakshmi Puja

The third day is the main night of Diwali. Households perform Lakshmi Puja, inviting the goddess of wealth into the home alongside Ganesha, the remover of obstacles. The home is illuminated with rows of diyas, electric lights, and kandils (paper lanterns); fireworks light the new-moon sky; families wear new clothes and exchange sweets.

For the Jain community, this day marks the nirvana of Mahavira, the 24th tirthankara, in 527 BCE — Jains observe it with prayer, fasting, and the lighting of lamps to commemorate the light of his knowledge. For Sikhs, the same date is Bandi Chhor Divas, marking the release of the sixth Guru, Hargobind, from Mughal imprisonment in 1619 (see below).

Day 4 — Govardhan Puja

The fourth day commemorates Krishna lifting Mount Govardhan on his little finger to shelter the village of Vrindavan from a seven-day flood sent by Indra. Devotees in North India build small mounds of food — Annakut, "mountain of food" — in temples, with as many as 56 or 108 dishes offered to Krishna. In Gujarat, this day is also celebrated as Bestu Varas, the Gujarati New Year.

Day 5 — Bhai Dooj

The festival closes with Bhai Dooj (also Bhai Tika in Nepal, Bhau Beej in Maharashtra), a celebration of the bond between brothers and sisters. Sisters apply a tilak to their brothers' foreheads, pray for their long life, and receive gifts in return. The day mirrors Raksha Bandhan earlier in the Hindu year and is one of the oldest sibling-honouring festivals in the world.

The Mythology Behind Diwali

Diwali is unusual among major festivals in that it has no single founding story. Instead, several traditions converge on the same autumn new moon.

The return of Rama to Ayodhya. The most widely told story across North India is from the Ramayana: Lord Rama returns to his kingdom of Ayodhya after fourteen years of exile and the defeat of the demon-king Ravana. The people of Ayodhya light rows of lamps to guide him home and celebrate the restoration of dharma (righteous order).

Krishna and Narakasura. In South India, Diwali is most strongly associated with Krishna's victory over the demon Narakasura, freeing the captives and restoring justice. This is why Naraka Chaturdashi — the day before Lakshmi Puja — is the main day of Deepavali across Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh.

The emergence of Lakshmi. A third tradition traces Diwali to the Samudra Manthan, the churning of the cosmic ocean by gods and asuras. From the ocean rose the goddess Lakshmi, who chose Vishnu as her consort. Her arrival on the new moon of Kartik is the reason households perform Lakshmi Puja on the main night.

Mahavira's nirvana (Jainism). For Jains, Diwali marks the moment Mahavira attained moksha (liberation) at Pavapuri in 527 BCE. The Kalpa Sutra records that the gods themselves lit lamps to mark the passing of the great teacher's light from the world.

Bandi Chhor Divas (Sikhism). Sikhs observe Bandi Chhor Divas — "the day of liberation" — on the same date. The sixth Sikh Guru, Hargobind, was released from imprisonment in Gwalior Fort by the Mughal emperor Jahangir in 1619, and famously refused to leave unless the 52 Hindu kings imprisoned with him were also freed. The Golden Temple in Amritsar is illuminated each year to mark the occasion.

How Diwali Is Celebrated Around the World

India

Across India, the main day brings rows of diyas along walls, balconies, and rooftops; rangoli patterns on doorsteps; family Lakshmi Puja in the evening; fireworks after dark; and the exchange of mithai (sweets) and gifts with relatives, neighbours, and colleagues. Markets stay open late through the week, and the days before Dhanteras are among the busiest shopping days of the Indian retail year.

Nepal — Tihar

In Nepal, Diwali is celebrated as Tihar or Yamapanchak, also five days long but with a distinctive twist: each day honours a different animal or relationship. Kaag Tihar (Crow Tihar) feeds crows, the messengers of Yama; Kukur Tihar (Dog Tihar) garlands and worships dogs; Gai Tihar honours cows; Govardhan Puja worships oxen; and Bhai Tika closes the festival.

Singapore and Malaysia

Deepavali is a gazetted public holiday in both countries. Singapore's Little India along Serangoon Road is illuminated with arches of light for several weeks, and Kuala Lumpur's Brickfields district hosts open houses where Malaysians of all faiths visit Indian-Malaysian neighbours for sweets and savouries.

Mauritius

Roughly half of Mauritius is of Indian descent, and Diwali is a national public holiday. The volcanic island's hillsides glow with lit homes on the main night, and the government sponsors public diya-lighting ceremonies in Port Louis.

Trinidad and Tobago

Trinidad and Tobago has observed Diwali as a national public holiday since 1966, the year of independence. The Indo-Trinidadian community — descended from indentured labourers brought from India in the 19th century — hosts the world's largest Diwali celebration outside Asia at Divali Nagar in Chaguanas, drawing tens of thousands of visitors over nine nights.

Fiji and the Caribbean

Fiji observes Diwali as a national public holiday. Guyana and Suriname, with large Indo-Caribbean populations, also recognise it as a public holiday and stage motorcade processions of lit floats.

United Kingdom, United States, Canada, Australia

The diaspora celebrations have grown into significant civic events. Leicester in the UK hosts one of the largest Diwali celebrations outside India, with an annual switch-on of lights along Belgrave Road. Trafalgar Square in London holds an annual Diwali stage event. The White House has marked Diwali with a ceremony each year since 2003, and a Diwali stamp was issued by the United States Postal Service in 2016. Diwali was made a school holiday in New York City public schools beginning in 2024.

Diwali Foods and Sweets

Food is central to Diwali, and most of it travels: families prepare mithai (sweets) and farsan (savoury snacks) in bulk to give to neighbours, colleagues, and visiting relatives.

Sweets (mithai):

• Laddoo — round semolina, gram-flour, or coconut sweets, often flavoured with cardamom and saffron
• Barfi — milk-based fudge in flavours including pistachio, cashew, and chocolate
• Gulab jamun — deep-fried milk-solid dumplings in rose-scented sugar syrup
• Kaju katli — diamond-cut cashew fudge, often topped with edible silver leaf
• Jalebi — bright orange spirals of fermented batter soaked in syrup
• Soan papdi — flaky, layered sweet that shatters at a touch

Savouries (farsan):

• Chakli / murukku — spiral, deep-fried rice-and-lentil snacks
• Mathri — flaky, salted biscuits
• Namak para — diamond-shaped fried savouries
• Sev — thin, crunchy gram-flour noodles

Regional specialities: Bengali rasgulla and sandesh; Gujarati shrikhand (sweet strained yoghurt); South Indian murukku and mysore pak; Maharashtrian karanji (sweet pastry parcels); Punjabi pinni.

Rangoli and Diyas

Two visual elements define Diwali: floor art and oil lamps.

Rangoli (called kolam in Tamil Nadu, muggu in Andhra Pradesh, alpana in Bengal, and aripana in Bihar) is a pattern drawn on the threshold or courtyard of the home. Traditional materials include rice flour, coloured powder, flower petals, and turmeric. The geometry varies by region — symmetrical lotuses in the north, dense dot-grids in the south — but the purpose is universal: to welcome guests and the goddess Lakshmi. The threshold is the boundary between the public street and the private home, and a rangoli marks it as auspicious.

Diyas are small clay oil lamps, typically filled with mustard or sesame oil and a cotton wick. Lighting them is the signature act of the festival: a single diya on the doorstep on Dhanteras, rows along every windowsill on Lakshmi Puja night, and floating lamps on rivers and ponds. The diya embodies the festival's central metaphor — a small steady light against the deepest dark of the Kartik new moon — and is also a practical signal that the home is awake, lit, and ready to receive Lakshmi.

Public Holiday Observance

Diwali is a gazetted public holiday in India, observed nationally on the day of Lakshmi Puja. Several Indian states extend the holiday to two or three days by adding Govardhan Puja and Bhai Dooj — for example, Gujarat (which also observes its New Year on Govardhan Puja), Maharashtra, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh.

Outside India, Diwali / Deepavali is a national public holiday in:

In the United Kingdom, United States, Canada, and Australia, Diwali is not a federal holiday but is increasingly recognised at the local level. New York State legislation added Diwali as a school holiday in New York City public schools beginning in 2024.

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Key Facts

Sources

1. National Portal of India, Holiday Calendar — https://www.india.gov.in/calendar
2. Singapore Ministry of Manpower, Public Holidays — https://www.mom.gov.sg/employment-practices/public-holidays
3. New York State Senate Bill S7574/A7769C, Diwali school holiday — https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2023/S7574