Diwali

What actually happens

Dhanteras — new kitchenware, new ledgers, the year's accounts closed. Rangoli — floor designs in rice flour and pigment, redone every morning.

• 01Dhanteras — new kitchenware, new ledgers, the year's accounts closed.
• 02Rangoli — floor designs in rice flour and pigment, redone every morning.
• 03Lakshmi Puja — the third night, doors left open and every lamp lit at once.
• 04Fireworks — legal on the third night almost nowhere, and set off everywhere anyway.

Sound of the crowd

Bhajans in the morning, then a wholesale switch to Bollywood party playback by evening. In Punjab the calendar point coincides with Bandi Chhor Divas, and gurdwaras light up in parallel.

How it survived

Deepavali is referenced in early Sanskrit texts and in the travel accounts of the Persian scholar Al-Biruni in the 11th century. It became a fixed national holiday in India in 1947 and a public holiday in a dozen other countries.