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Govardhan Puja and Annakut Explained: The Day After Diwali

Govardhan Puja and Annakut Explained: The Day After Diwali

The day after Lakshmi puja is the least understood of the five days of Diwali, because it is three or four different festivals depending on where you are. In Mathura and much of the north it is Govardhan Puja, with a mountain of food. In Gujarat it is New Year’s Day. In Maharashtra it is Padwa, a day for husbands and wives. In the south and in parts of the west it is Bali Pratipada, when a demon king returns to visit his people.

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The Five Days of Diwali Explained: What Happens on Each Day and Why

The Five Days of Diwali Explained: What Happens on Each Day and Why

Ask most people when Diwali is and they will name one night. Ask their grandmother and she will name five days, each with its own name, its own story and its own list of jobs. The one night is the third; the other four are how the festival builds up and winds down.

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Five Easy Diwali Sweets You Can Make in Under an Hour

Five Easy Diwali Sweets You Can Make in Under an Hour

The sweets in this article share three qualities: they use ingredients from an ordinary Indian kitchen, they need nothing more than a heavy pan and a plate, and they are done in under an hour including cooling. Each makes about 20 pieces, enough for the puja, the family and two neighbours.

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Dry Fruit Gifting Guide: How to Choose, Store and Present Dry Fruits

Dry Fruit Gifting Guide: How to Choose, Store and Present Dry Fruits

Dry fruits are the Diwali gift that rarely gets passed on. They suit almost every diet and age, they keep for months, and they get used up at exactly the time of year when the house is full of guests and someone in the kitchen is making kheer or ladoos for the third time that week. If you are stuck on what to give someone, dry fruits are the safe answer, unless you know they have a nut allergy.

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Diwali Snacks and Savouries: Namkeen, Chakli, Mathri and the Faral Platter

Diwali Snacks and Savouries: Namkeen, Chakli, Mathri and the Faral Platter

For every box of sweets that changes hands at Diwali, a tin of something salty and crisp sits on the kitchen counter, opened every time someone walks in. In Maharashtra it is called faral; in Gujarat, nasta; in the north, simply namkeen. Whatever the name, it is the food that actually gets eaten over the five days, because nobody can manage a ladoo at every visit.

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Diwali Cleaning and Preparation Timeline: A Four-Week Plan

Diwali Cleaning and Preparation Timeline: A Four-Week Plan

Cleaning the house before Diwali is not a chore attached to the festival; in the tradition it is part of the festival. Lakshmi visits the clean house. The cleaning also has a practical shape: it is when the year’s accumulation is dealt with, the things that broke get fixed, and the home is reset.

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Diwali Budget Planner: How to Plan Festive Spending Without Regret

Diwali Budget Planner: How to Plan Festive Spending Without Regret

For a lot of Indian households, Diwali is the most expensive week of the year, and the one they plan least. The money goes out in a rush of small decisions in the last ten days, and the real total only becomes clear in December, when the credit card statement or the UPI history finally adds it up.

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Diwali Across India: Regional Traditions From Kolkata to Kerala

Diwali Across India: Regional Traditions From Kolkata to Kerala

The word Diwali covers a season more than a single festival. The same five days in Kartik are Lakshmi’s night in Delhi, Kali’s night in Kolkata, Krishna’s dawn victory in Chennai, the new year in Ahmedabad, and the day the sixth Guru walked free in Amritsar. The lamps are the constant. Almost everything else changes at the state border.

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Dhanteras Guide: What to Buy, What It Means and How to Celebrate

Dhanteras Guide: What to Buy, What It Means and How to Celebrate

Dhanteras is the first of the five days of Diwali and the one most associated with buying. Markets stay open late, jewellers advertise for weeks beforehand, and even families who buy nothing else that month will bring home a steel spoon or a new broom. Walk through Chandni Chowk, Laad Bazaar or T. Nagar that evening and you will see why. Behind the shopping is a set of stories and a small evening ritual that most people know only in part.

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Classic Diwali Sweets and Where They Come From

Classic Diwali Sweets and Where They Come From

Sweets are the currency of Diwali. They are the offering at the puja, the gift to the neighbour, the thing on the table when anyone walks in. Most families have a fixed list of the ones that must be there, and most of those lists overlap.

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