Diwali 2024: What to know about India’s festival of lights

This 12 months, the primary day of Diwali, crucial competition of the 12 months in India, falls on Halloween in america. 

Diwali can be extraordinarily essential to Hindus.

It’s celebrated throughout faiths by greater than a billion individuals on the planet’s most populous nation and the diaspora. Over 5 days, individuals participate in festive gatherings, fireworks shows, feasts and prayer.

Diwali is derived from the phrase “Deepavali,” which suggests “a row of lights.” Celebrants mild rows of conventional clay oil lamps exterior their houses to represent the victory of sunshine over darkness and data over ignorance.

This is every thing it’s essential to find out about Diwali:

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The dates of the competition are primarily based on the Hindu lunar calendar, sometimes falling in late October or early November.

This 12 months, the vacation is being celebrated on Oct. 31 and Nov. 1. Within the U.S., Diwali falls on Halloween this 12 months, which has triggered fairly a number of #Diwaloween memes on social media the place some celebrants will be seen lighting diyas of their scary costumes or handing out laddoos to trick-or-treaters.

Whereas Diwali is a serious non secular competition for Hindus, it is usually noticed by Sikhs, Jains and Buddhists. The origin story of Diwali varies relying on the area. All these tales have one underlying theme — the victory of fine over evil.

In southern India, Diwali celebrates the victory of Lord Krishna’s destruction of the demon Naraka who is claimed to have imprisoned ladies and tormented his topics. In northern India, Diwali honors the triumphant return of Lord Rama, his spouse Sita, and brother Lakshmana, from a 14-year exile within the forest.

AYODHYA, INDIA – OCTOBER 23: Fireworks seen throughout Deepotsav celebrations, on the eve of the Diwali, on October 23, 2022 in Ayodhya, India. The ‘janmbhoomi’ of Lord Rama is all set to witness the grand ‘Deepotsav’ celebrations within the presence of Prim

The competition brings with it numerous distinctive traditions, which additionally range by the area. What all celebrations have in widespread are the lights, fireworks, feasting, new garments and praying.

—In southern India, many have an early morning heat oil bathtub to represent bathing within the holy River Ganges as a type of bodily and religious purification.

—Within the north, worshipping the Goddess Lakshmi, who symbolizes wealth and prosperity, is the norm.

Playing is a well-liked custom due to the assumption whoever gambled on Diwali night time would prosper all year long. Many individuals purchase gold on the primary day of Diwali, generally known as Dhanteras — an act they imagine will carry them good luck.

Setting off firecrackers is a cherished custom, as is exchanging sweets and items amongst family and friends. Diwali celebrations sometimes function rangoli, that are geometric, floral patterns drawn on the ground utilizing colourful powders. This 12 months, a number of northern Indian states, together with the capital New Delhi, are instituting partial or complete fireworks bans to fight rising air pollution ranges throughout Diwali.

Buddhists, Jains and Sikhs have their very own Diwali tales:

—Jains observe Diwali because the day the Lord Mahavira, the final of the nice lecturers, attained nirvana, which is liberation from the cycle of delivery, dying and rebirth.

—Sikhs have a good time Bandi Chhor Divas — a day that overlaps with Diwali — to commemorate the discharge of Guru Hargobind, a revered determine within the religion, who had been imprisoned for 12 years by the Mughal emperor Jahangir.

—Buddhists observe the day as one when the Hindu Emperor Ashoka, who dominated within the third century B.C., transformed to Buddhism.

This 12 months, Mattel has launched its “Barbie Signature Diwali Doll” by designer Anita Dongre who wrote on Instagram that her Barbie represents “the fashion-forward trendy ladies who wears India on her sleeve with pleasure.”

In distinction to her earliest iteration in 1996 who was clad in a shiny pink sari or the 2012 avatar who was packaged with a “monkey pal,” Diwali Barbie is fashionably wearing a lehnga, an ankle size embroidered skirt with motifs from Dongre’s dwelling state of Rajasthan, a cropped shirt and vest.

This doll, priced at $40, offered out on day one on Mattel’s web site.

The Related Press contributed to this report.