Diwali in four faiths: Hindu, Jain, Sikh and Buddhist

Diwali takes its name from the Sanskrit dipavali, a “row of lamps”. It falls on the night of the new moon, the darkest night of the lunar month of Kartika in the northern reckoning (Ashvin in the calendars of the south and west), which comes in October or November; in 2026 the main night is 8 November. Because it follows the moon, its date moves each year in the Western calendar.

The shared picture is simple: light pushed back against the dark. What the light stands for differs from one faith to the next: a king coming home, a goddess of fortune, a teacher’s liberation, a guru’s release.

In the north of India, Diwali celebrates the return of Rama, with Sita and his brother Lakshmana, to his city of Ayodhya after fourteen years of exile and the defeat of the demon king Ravana; the people lit rows of lamps to welcome him. In the south the festival is often kept a day earlier, on Naraka Chaturdashi, recalling Krishna’s victory over the demon Narakasura. In Bengal the same night belongs to the goddess Kali.

Everywhere it is the night of Lakshmi, goddess of wealth and good fortune. Houses are cleaned, patterns of coloured powder, rangoli, are drawn at the door to welcome her, and families perform Lakshmi pujapuja Worship: offerings of flowers, food, light and incense to a deity, at home or in a temple. Glossary. In much of India Diwali is a five-day festival, from Dhanteras, a day for buying metal and new utensils, to Bhai Dooj, when sisters pray for their brothers. In Gujarat and among many traders, new account books are blessed on Diwali evening, and the new business year, Bestu Varas, begins the next day.

For Jains, Diwali is the night on which Mahavira, the twenty-fourth tirthankaraTirthankara A “ford-maker”: one of twenty-four liberated teachers who show the way across the river of rebirth. Mahavira was the last. Glossary, reached mokshamoksha Liberation from the cycle of rebirth, the highest goal of life in Hinduism and Jainism. Glossary, final liberation, at Pavapuri in what is now Bihar. Jain tradition dates it to 527 BCE. The Kalpa Sutra says that on that new-moon night the eighteen confederate kings of Kashi and Kosala, who were keeping a fast, lit lamps, saying: “Since the light of intelligence is gone, let us make an illumination of material matter.”

Jains often keep the night with fasting, prayer and the reading of scripture rather than feasting, and many avoid fireworks because of the harm they do to small living beings. The same night, the Kalpa Sutra says, Mahavira’s chief disciple, Gautama Indrabhuti, reached perfect knowledge, kevala jnanakevala jnana Perfect, all-knowing knowledge, attained by a soul freed from karma. Glossary; popular tradition places it at dawn. For many Jains the new year of the Vira Nirvana era begins the next day.

Sikhs celebrate the same night as Bandi Chhor Divas, the “day of release of the prisoners”. Tradition tells that the sixth Guru, Hargobind, was held in Gwalior fort by the Mughal emperor Jahangir. When he was freed, he refused to leave unless 52 imprisoned rajas, hill kings, were released with him; told that only those who could hold on to his clothes might go, he wore a cloak with 52 tassels and led them all out.

His return to Amritsar was greeted with lamps, and the Golden Temple, the Harmandir Sahib, is still illuminated on this night, often with fireworks over its pool. The Sikh name stresses freedom and justice rather than fortune.

Most Buddhists in the world do not keep Diwali, but in Nepal, where the festival is called Tihar, many Buddhists, especially Newars, take part. Its five days honour animals and people in turn: the crow, messenger of death, on the first day; the dog on the second, when dogs are garlanded and given food; the cow and the goddess Lakshmi on the third.

On the fourth day, when many Hindus worship oxen (Govardhan Puja), the Newars of the Kathmandu Valley, both Buddhists and Hindus, keep Mha Puja, “worship of the body”. Each member of the family sits behind a mandala of rice and colours and is honoured, so that body and mind are strengthened for the year ahead. The same day begins the year of Nepal Sambat, the Newar era counted from 879 CE. On the last day sisters mark their brothers’ foreheads with a tika of seven colours.