Two days after Lakshmi puja, when the lamps are still up and the sweets are half finished, Diwali ends with the quietest of its five days. Bhai Dooj is a ceremony between sisters and brothers: a tilak, an aarti, a meal, a gift. It has none of the noise of Diwali night and all of its warmth. For many people it is the day they remember best from childhood: a sister’s thumb pressing kumkum onto a forehead, and an envelope passed across a plate of food.
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