What Is Diwali? A Plain Explanation for Anyone New to It

What Is Diwali? A Plain Explanation for Anyone New to It

What is Diwali? It is a five-day Indian festival of lamps built around the darkest new-moon night of autumn, kept by Hindus, Jains, Sikhs and some Buddhists, and in 2027 its main night, Lakshmi Puja, falls on Friday 29 October. People clean and light their homes, pray for a good year, share sweets and send greetings to everyone they know.

The greeting is where most newcomers join in, and SubhSandesh's own numbers show when it happens. On Raksha Bandhan 2026, the nearest festival we have measured (n = 89 pages), 49.4% of greeting pages were built on the festival day itself and 27.0% the day before; across the whole platform, 48.3% of shared pages are opened on a phone. This page covers the name, the five days in one line each, what each faith marks, what you will see, and what to say.

What does the word Diwali mean?

Diwali is the everyday form of the Sanskrit Dipavali, from dipa (lamp) and avali (row), so the name simply describes a row of lamps. Deepavali is the same word in its fuller form, standard in South India, Singapore and Malaysia, while Divali is the usual spelling in Trinidad and Guyana.

UNESCO added Deepavali to its Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2025, under decision 20.COM 7.b.24. Its entry describes a light festival that "marks the last harvest of the year and the start of a new year and new season", held on the new moon in October or November. Most short explainers leave that harvest and new-year reading out.

The five days of Diwali 2027, one line each

Diwali is several festivals stacked into one week. In The Hindu Religious Year, published in 1921, M. M. Underhill described it as "compounded of some five different festivals": worship of wealth, Vishnu's victory over the demon Naraka, Lakshmi worship, Vishnu's victory over King Bali, and the affection between brothers and sisters. The 2027 dates below come from Drik Panchang's 2027 Diwali calendar for New Delhi.

1. Dhanteras, Wednesday 27 October 2027

The day for buying something new, usually gold, silver or a steel utensil, and for traders to honour their account books. Underhill recorded merchants closing the year's accounts and worshipping their ledgers beside a pile of silver coins. Say "Happy Dhanteras".

2. Choti Diwali, Thursday 28 October 2027

"Little Diwali", also called Naraka Chaturdashi, remembers Krishna's defeat of the demon Naraka, and many families take an oil bath before sunrise. In Tamil Nadu this morning is Deepavali itself, and in Bengal the night belongs to Kali.

3. Lakshmi Puja, Friday 29 October 2027

The main night. At dusk families worship Lakshmi, goddess of wealth and well-being, usually with Ganesha, then light every lamp in and around the house. When people say "Diwali", this is the evening they mean.

4. Govardhan Puja, Saturday 30 October 2027

North Indian homes and temples offer Annakut, a "mountain of food", to Krishna, while others keep Bali Pratipada, called Padwa in Maharashtra. Gujarati families celebrate their New Year on this day, with visits and fresh account books.

5. Bhai Dooj, Sunday 31 October 2027

Sisters put a tilak on their brothers' foreheads and pray for their long lives, and brothers give a gift in return. It closes the festival.

Drik Panchang also lists an earlier sixth day, Govatsa Dwadashi (Vasu Baras), on Tuesday 26 October 2027, honouring cows and calves. Most Indians still count five.

Who celebrates Diwali, and what does each faith mark?

The same new moon carries different meanings depending on who lights the lamp. For most Hindus it is Lakshmi's night and, across the north, the return of Rama to Ayodhya after 14 years of exile; in Bengal it is the night of Kali Puja instead.

For Jains it marks the nirvana of Mahavira, the 24th Tirthankara. The Kalpa Sutra, in Hermann Jacobi's 1884 translation (§128, p. 266), records that the confederate kings lit an illumination on the new-moon night he died, on a day it calls a fasting day. Jacobi adds in a footnote that Jains "celebrate the Nirvana of Mahavira with an illumination on the night of new moon in the month Karttika".

For Sikhs it is Bandi Chhor Divas, the "day of release", marking Guru Hargobind's return from imprisonment in Gwalior fort; the Golden Temple in Amritsar is lit for it. Newar Buddhists in Nepal keep it within Tihar, performing Mha Puja, a worship of one's own body.

The festival also travels. A 2024 article in the Thai DEC Journal: Art and Design documents Diwali in Bangkok's "Little India" around Pahurat, noting Sikh and Jain communities there alongside Hindus (English abstract read; the article is in Thai).

What do people actually do at Diwali?

Most of the work happens before the main night. Houses are cleaned top to bottom, because a clean and lit home is believed to invite Lakshmi, and doorsteps get a rangoli of coloured powder, rice flour or petals. Underhill noted in 1921 that women spent Dhanteras scouring the house and making sweets "for the five days' holiday", which still describes most kitchens.

On the main evening, families dress in new or best clothes, do the puja, then set clay diyas along windows, balconies and gates. Boxes of sweets and dry fruit travel from house to house, and many businesses open new account books, which Gujarati traders call Chopda Pujan. Fireworks are common, though plenty of families now light only lamps.

How do you wish someone a happy Diwali?

"Happy Diwali" works for anyone, including from someone who does not celebrate. To go one step further, these are the greetings people actually use:

• शुभ दीपावली (Shubh Deepavali): "an auspicious Deepavali", the polite Hindi form for elders and in-laws
• दिवाली की शुभकामनाएँ (Diwali ki shubhkamnayein): "good wishes for Diwali", warm and neutral for anyone
• தீபாவளி வாழ்த்துகள் (Deepavali vazhthugal): "Deepavali greetings" in Tamil, best sent on the Thursday morning, 28 October 2027
• સાલ મુબારક (Saal Mubarak): "happy new year" in Gujarati, for Saturday 30 October 2027
• ਬੰਦੀ ਛੋੜ ਦਿਵਸ ਦੀਆਂ ਵਧਾਈਆਂ (Bandi Chhor Divas diyan vadhaiyan): "congratulations on Bandi Chhor Divas", for Sikh friends

For a colleague or neighbour who celebrates, plain English is fine. Two lines that rarely go wrong:

• "Happy Diwali to you and everyone at home. I hope the whole street is glowing tonight."
• "Wishing your family a bright Diwali, and a kinder year waiting on the other side of it."

Timing matters more than wording. SubhSandesh has no Diwali usage data yet, so the nearest measure is Raksha Bandhan 2026, where not one of 89 greeting pages was built more than 7 days ahead. The table matches each Diwali day to what you will notice, a fitting greeting, and that analogue's share at the same distance.

The main night and the day before carried 76.4% of greetings in the analogue data, so sending on 28 or 29 October keeps you in step. A message timed for dusk arrives mid-celebration.

If there is one person you want to wish properly, say a partner who grew up with the festival, SubhSandesh's interactive Diwali card with photos and music turns the greeting into something they play. They light a diya at their door bearing your tag, colour a rangoli until your initials glow and light sky lanterns holding up to six photos, then open your letter from a red-and-gold shagun liffafa. It takes about five minutes, has modes for your love, family or a friend, and opens in any browser with no app or account.

If you do not celebrate Diwali: being a good guest

Non-Indian friends, colleagues and partners are often invited to a Diwali evening, and the etiquette is short. Bring sweets or dry fruit, take your shoes off where the family does, and arrive when the host says, since on 29 October 2027 the prayers happen at dusk.

You do not have to pray, but standing quietly through the aarti, the circling of lit lamps before the deity, is welcome. Take any prasad, a sweet first offered to the deity, with your right hand, and "Happy Diwali, and thanks for inviting me" covers the rest.

For diaspora children who half-know the festival, the most useful fact is that Diwali is a new year as much as a festival of lights. Underhill called it "the new year of former days", and Gujarati families start theirs on Saturday 30 October 2027. To mark that new year with one person, SubhSandesh's sealed time capsule for two has you both write blind predictions for the year, opened together a year later.

When a SubhSandesh Diwali page is the wrong thing to send

A greeting page is a one-person gesture, and it is the wrong tool in ordinary Diwali situations. If you will be in the same house on 29 October, a box of mithai handed over in person beats any link; for an office channel of 40 people, one warm line in the group is right.

It also loses with anyone who will not open a link. SubhSandesh pages average 11.1 views each, so they do get reopened, but a grandparent who never taps links is better served by a phone call after the puja. And a friend who simply asked "what is Diwali?" needs an explanation like this one, not a card.

Sources

• UNESCO, Deepavali, Representative List entry, inscribed 2025 (20.COM 7.b.24).
• M. M. Underhill, The Hindu Religious Year, Oxford University Press, 1921, pp. 59–63.
• Hermann Jacobi (trans.), Jaina Sutras Part I, Sacred Books of the East vol. 22, 1884, p. 266.
• Atiyot Sankaburanurak, DEC Journal: Art and Design 3(3), 27 December 2024, abstract only.
• Drik Panchang, 2027 Diwali Puja Calendar, New Delhi, date reference only.