Why we light lamps at Diwali
Reading time aloud: about four minutes.
Ask why Diwali is celebrated and you'll get different answers in different houses. All of them are right, and that is the interesting part.
In the north: they came home
Rama, the prince of Ayodhya, was exiled for fourteen years. His wife Sita went with him, and his brother Lakshmana. In the forest Sita was taken by Ravana, the king of Lanka, and there was a war to get her back — the whole of the Ramayana sits inside this sentence.
When the fourteen years ended and they finally came home, they arrived on a moonless night, the darkest of the year.
So the people of Ayodhya put a lamp in every window and along every wall and on the steps of every house, until the city could be seen from a long way off, and their king and queen did not have to come home in the dark.
That is why the lamps. Not decoration — a welcome.
In the south: the demon fell
In much of the south the same festival remembers Krishna and Satyabhama defeating Narakasura, a demon who had made himself unbearable. He was granted, dying, one request: that his death be remembered with light rather than mourning. People bathe before dawn and light lamps at first light — Naraka Chaturdashi.
In the west: the goddess visits
In Gujarat and much of the merchant west, Diwali is Lakshmi's night. She walks, and she goes into clean, bright, welcoming houses and not into dark ones. Which is why the cleaning comes before the lamps, why the door is left open, and why new account books are opened this week.
And not only Hindus
Jains mark the same night as the day Mahavira attained liberation. Sikhs observe Bandi Chhor Divas — the day Guru Hargobind walked out of imprisonment, and refused to leave until fifty-two princes held captive with him were released too.
Every one of these stories is about coming out of the dark, and every one is a homecoming or a release. If a child asks which is the real reason, the honest answer is that a festival this old collects stories the way a house collects things — and that the lamp on your windowsill means whichever of them your family means by it.
Even the number of days varies — five in much of the north and west, two in much of the south, and the names change completely: Deepavali, Diwali, Bandi Chhor Divas, Kali Puja in Bengal, where the same nights belong to a very different goddess.
Last updated: 2026-08-11
Get new guides by email
Occasional emails when we publish something worth your time. Published by The Desi Network; you can unsubscribe in one click, any time.