The Many Diwalis Of India

Diwali falls on the new moon of Kartik, but how it is celebrated depends on where in India you wake up that morning. In Lucknow, it means Lakshmi and Ganesh seated on a decorated chowki and new steel utensils bought on Dhanteras. A few states away, the same festival brings another deity, another dish, and sometimes another date.

In Tamil Nadu, the festival begins before sunrise, a day earlier than in the north. Diwali falls on Naraka Chaturdashi, when Krishna, with Satyabhama at his side, is said to have killed the demon Narakasura. Families awake during Brahma Muhurta for Ganga snanam, a sesame oil bath believed to carry the purity of the Ganges, and then put on new clothes. Before any sweets come a spoonful of deepavali legiyam, a thick paste of dried ginger, long pepper and carom seeds cooked with jaggery, and eaten to settle the stomach for the day ahead. "There is no single breakfast that represents Diwali across Tamil Nadu," said Ruchira Hoon, chef patron of Draavin Canteen in Delhi-NCR, since Brahmin, Mudaliar and Chettiar homes each have their own versions. Most homes make palagaram or light snacks, with trays of murukku, thenkuzhal, adhirasam and palkova carried to relatives and neighbours throughout the day.

In the east, Bengalis don’t actually celebrate Diwali. "We have Kali Pujo on the same night or the night after," said Madhushree Basu Roy and Anindya S Basu, co-founders of food and travel blog Pikturenama. The evening before, on Bhoot Chaturdashi, Bengali homes light 14 diyas for 14 generations of ancestors and eat choddo shaak or 14 leafy greens, usually sold together in a bunch on the same morning. Kali Pujo means community pandals, crackers and mutton, which is "sort of mandatory." Many homes cook niramish mangsho, or mutton without onion and garlic, a custom tied to the offerings at Kalighat.

Next door in Odisha, families call their ancestors home. "There is one particular ritual, which is very typical of Odia households," said consultant chef Rachit Kirteeman. After dusk, families draw a boat-shaped rangoli with seven chambers, each holding cotton, mustard, salt, turmeric, asparagus root, and a wild creeper. Everyone lights a bundle of kaunria kathi, or dried jute stems from the puja lamp and raises it to the sky, reciting, "Bada badua ho, andhaara re aasa, alua re jaa"—"O ancestors, come from the darkness and go towards the light." The chants ask the forefathers to come through the dark, leave along the lit path and rest on the 22 steps of the Jagannath temple in Puri. Later that night, Cuttack and Bhubaneswar worship Kali against the backdrop of a silver filigree.

In parts of Himachal Pradesh, Diwali comes a month after the rest of the country. Villages in Kullu, Shimla and Sirmaur districts celebrate Budhi Diwali, or "old" Diwali, on the following new moon, because locals say news of Lord Ram’s return reached the mountains late. The Hatti community of Sirmaur celebrates it for a week, lighting a bonfire before the village deity’s temple, singing and roasting grains through the night.

Diwali has also crossed faiths for centuries. At Akbar’s court, it was called "Jashn-e-Chiraghan" or the feast of lamps, and sweets were sent out as greetings. Under Shah Jahan, the celebrations moved to the Red Fort. Author and historian Rana Safvi said that the Rang Mahal was lit with diyas, fireworks went off near the fort walls, and an Akash Diya burned on a pole 40 yards high, fed with cottonseed oil. On Dhanteras, Bahadur Shah Zafar had new copper vessels sent to the kitchens of his Hindu nobles, and he held a Lakshmi puja open to all, while Muslim grain roasters sold the kheel and batashe offered to the goddess.

Among the British who wrote about the festival was Fanny Parkes, who came to India in 1822 as the wife of Charles Crawford Parkes, a civil servant of the East India Company. Her journals, published in 1850 as "Wanderings of a Pilgrim in Search of the Picturesque," include "Dewali at Cawnpore in October 1830." She wrote, "Hindus bathed in the Ganges, worshipped Lakshmi at night, kept houses and streets lit until morning, and across Hindostan spent the night gambling."

In 18th-century Agra, the poet Nazir Akbarabadi wrote, "Har ik makaan mein jala phir diya Diwali ka / Har ik taraf ko ujala hua Diwali ka"—"In every home, a Diwali lamp is lit anew; in every direction, its light spreads." There is no one way to celebrate Diwali or any other festival, and every community can make it its own.

It is, after all, a festival that brings people together.