Diwali — from Dīpāvalī, “a row of lamps” — is usually described as a festival. It is more accurately a sequence of five distinct observances on consecutive tithis, which happen to have been gathered under one name, and into which several separate traditions have converged.
This page walks through the five days, the different stories attached to them, who is worshipped at the central Lakshmi Puja and why, and which texts are recited — with links to each one in full.
A word on how the days are counted
Hindu festivals follow the lunar calendar. Each lunar month has a waxing half and a waning half, and each half is counted in tithis, lunar days measured by the angle between the Sun and the Moon. The Diwali sequence runs across the end of one fortnight and the start of the next: from the thirteenth tithi of the waning Moon, through the new moon, to the second tithi of the waxing Moon.
Because tithis do not line up neatly with sunrise-to-sunrise days, the five observances do not always fall on five neat consecutive calendar days, and two can occasionally share one. That is exactly the kind of question a panchang answers.
The five days
- Dhanteras — Trayodashi (the thirteenth tithi). Associated with Dhanvantari, who rises from the churning of the ocean carrying the vessel of amrita, and in practice with the buying of metal. Dhanvantari is the physician of the gods and the patron of Ayurveda; amṛta is the nectar of immortality. The name is usually explained as dhana, wealth, with terasa, “thirteenth”. Buying a metal vessel, utensil or coin on this day is a widespread household custom, and lamps are often lit at the doorway in the evening.
- Naraka Chaturdashi — Chaturdashi (the fourteenth). Kept as Choti Diwali (“little Diwali”) in the north and as the principal Diwali day in much of the south, where it marks Krishna’s killing of Narakasura, an asura king who had seized kingdoms and held many women captive. In some tellings it is Krishna’s queen Satyabhama who strikes the final blow. In the south the day typically begins before dawn with a ritual oil bath, followed by new clothes and fireworks.
- Lakshmi Puja — Amavasya, the new moon of Kartika. The main night. (Some calendars name this month Ashvina, by the same kind of month-naming convention that shifts other festivals; the night itself is the same.) In Bengal and parts of eastern India the same new-moon night is kept above all as Kali Puja.
- Govardhan Puja / Annakut — Pratipada (the first tithi of the waxing half). The lifting of the hill; the day of the food-mountain offering. Krishna lifted Govardhan hill to shelter the people of Vraja from a storm sent by Indra, and devotees remember it by heaping a “mountain of food”, annakūṭa, before the deity. In Gujarat this day is kept as the new year, and in Maharashtra and Karnataka as Bali Pratipada, honouring the generous asura king Bali.
- Bhai Dooj — Dvitiya (the second). Brothers and sisters. Sisters mark their brothers’ foreheads with a tilak and pray for their wellbeing, and brothers visit and bring gifts. The day is linked with the story of Yama, god of death, visiting his sister Yamuna, which is why it is also called Yama Dvitiya.
These are tithis, not dates — see what a tithi is and what a panchang is. AdiVeda does not publish festival dates. Nor do we calculate tithis or give muhurtas (auspicious time windows) for the Lakshmi Puja; those depend on location and on the conventions of the panchang used, so take them from a panchang prepared for your place or from your family priest.
Why the main night is the darkest one
Lakshmi Puja falls on Amavasya, the new moon — the darkest night of the lunar month. A festival of lamps is placed deliberately on the night with no moon at all. Whatever else the lamps mean, they are lit against genuine darkness rather than decorating an already-bright night, and every account attached to the festival turns on that.
The lamps themselves are traditionally small clay diyas filled with oil or ghee, with a cotton wick. They are placed at doorways, windows, courtyards and along roofs. A common household understanding is that the light welcomes Lakshmi into a clean, prepared home, which is why the days before Diwali are also a time of thorough cleaning, repair and decoration, including rangoli patterns drawn at the threshold.
Several traditions, and they are genuinely different
Diwali is one of the few observances where honesty requires naming a plurality rather than a single origin.
- Rama’s return to Ayodhya — the dominant account across North India. Worth reading with the caution on that page: Valmiki describes a city decorated for a coronation, and the identification of the return with Diwali develops in later devotional literature and practice.
- Lakshmi’s emergence from the ocean — the account that most directly explains the Lakshmi Puja itself. When the gods and asuras churned the ocean of milk for amrita, many treasures rose from it, and among them was Lakshmi, who chose Vishnu as her consort. See how Lakshmi rose from the sea and Lakshmi and Vishnu.
- Krishna and Narakasura — the southern account, attached to Chaturdashi.
- Krishna and Govardhan — attached to the day after the new moon. The story is on the hill on a fingertip.
- Non-Hindu observances on the same nights — Jains keep it as the nirvana of Mahavira; Sikhs keep Bandi Chhor Divas, remembering the release of Guru Hargobind from imprisonment. These are separate traditions sharing a date, not versions of the same festival, and it is worth not collapsing them.
Who is worshipped, and why it is not only Lakshmi
The Lakshmi Puja is conventionally offered to Lakshmi and Ganesha together, and in many households to Kubera and to Saraswati as well.
The pairing with Ganesha is not decorative. Lakshmi is prosperity; Ganesha removes what stands in the way. The tradition treats the two as a sequence rather than a set — obstacles first, then increase — which is why the invocation order in almost every household puja puts Ganesha first.
Kubera is the treasurer of the gods, the keeper of wealth rather than its source; where he is included, he is often honoured alongside the household’s own store of money or valuables. Saraswati, goddess of learning, is frequently represented by books. Among trading communities in particular, the new account books are opened and worshipped on this night, so that the business year begins under the goddess’s eye.
The worship itself follows the general shape of a Hindu puja: the space is purified, Ganesha is invoked, the deities are welcomed and offered water, flowers, sweets, incense and light, texts and names are recited, and the rite closes with ārtī, the waving of a lamp, after which lamps are lit throughout the house.
What is recited
All of these are published in full on AdiVeda, with Devanagari, transliteration and translation.
For Lakshmi
- Kanakadhārā Stotram — Shankaracharya’s hymn, the classic Lakshmi text. Its name means “the stream of gold”, from the story told of its composition.
- Shri Suktam — a Vedic hymn to Shri, the goddess of radiance and abundance, and the oldest text in this list. It is widely chanted at Lakshmi worship.
- Mahalakshmi Chalisa — forty verses in Hindi, easy for a whole family to recite together.
- Mahalakshmi Ashtottara Shatanāmāvalī — the hundred and eight names, often recited while offering a flower or a grain of rice with each one.
- Mahalakshmi Ashtakam — eight verses of praise, short enough to include in any household puja.
- Om Jai Lakshmi Mata — the aarti commonly sung at the close of the puja.
For Ganesha, Kubera and the other days
- Ganesh Chalisa — for the invocation that opens the puja. The aarti Jai Ganesh Jai Ganesh Deva is also widely sung.
- Kuber Chalisa — for households that include Kubera; see also Kubera mantras.
- Dhanvantari Chalisa — natural for Dhanteras, Dhanvantari’s day.
- Giriraj Chalisa — for Govardhan Puja; Girirāja, “king of mountains”, is a name for Govardhan hill.
- Kali Chalisa — for those who keep the new-moon night as Kali Puja.
- Festival puja mantras — the general invocation set.
Questions people often ask
Is Diwali one day or five?
Both, depending on who is speaking. Most people mean the night of Lakshmi Puja when they say “Diwali”, but the full observance is the five-day sequence above, and in the south the principal day is often the one before.
Why do some people say Diwali is about Rama and others about Lakshmi?
Because both are true in different places. The festival gathered several traditions over time, and different regions foreground different ones. They do not need to be reconciled into one story.
Does the puja need to be elaborate?
No. A clean space, an image of Lakshmi and Ganesha, a lamp, some flowers or sweets, and one text recited with attention are a complete household observance.
Where this comes from
The churning of the ocean, from which both Lakshmi and Dhanvantari emerge, is in the Bhāgavata Purāṇa, book 8. The Narakasura and Govardhan narratives are in book 10. The five-day structure, the lamps, and the association of the sequence with Rama’s return are living tradition of varying antiquity rather than a single scriptural prescription, and they differ substantially by region. Where this page reports a practice rather than a text, it says so — the account-book worship, the buying of metal, the oil bath, the regional new-year and Bali Pratipada observances are all practice rather than scriptural prescription.
Read on AdiVeda
Diwali 2026 falls on Sunday, 8 November (New Delhi). See Diwali and every festival date for 2026–2030 in the Festival & Holiday Calendar · Today’s panchang