Your guide to understanding Diwali, one of the biggest holidays in India
Diwali, the Festival of Lights is upon us.
Santhoshi Radhakrishnan, a Fort Mill chef and entrepreneur who has shared her food secrets with CharlotteFive and recently opened up a new cooking class studio, grew up celebrating Diwali in India and helped explain the holiday for those who aren’t familiar with it.
In short: Diwali falls on different dates each year, as the Hindu calendar differs from the Western calendar. It’s generally in October or November. It’s commonly a multi-day holiday, but this year the main time to celebrate the Festival of Lights 2024 is Thursday, Oct. 31 through the morning of Friday, Nov. 1.
The background: The origins of Diwali differs for people among the various regions in India, Radhakrishnan said. In one telling of the story, Diwali celebrates a Hindu god coming to Earth to destroy a demon that was destroying peace on Earth. In another, it celebrates a prince’s royal homecoming after years in exile.
As a whole, the Festival of Lights that is Diwali marks the victory of good over evil.
How do you celebrate: Sweets and fireworks are huge.
In India, Diwali is a national holiday as big as Thanksgiving or Christmas, Radhakrishnan said. Again, it’s celebrated differently among the country’s north and south regions, but sweets and fireworks are common in Diwali celebrations.
“It’s one of the most fun days in my childhood memories — Diwali is very special,” she said.
“When I was a kid, we woke up at 4 a.m., as tradition,” Radhakrishnan said. After getting ready for the day with help from her grandmother who lived downstairs, her mother would make a variety of sweets, along with idli, which are rice cakes, and goat korma.
“We’d feel so full and go downstairs to the front porch, and my dad would have all the fireworks ready for us to start setting off. The whole street would be so loud the whole day,” she said.
In America, some families who celebrate Diwali gather with friends to eat homemade sweets and set off fireworks together. Charlotte Ledger reported that Phantom Fireworks in Indian Land has hired extra staff to get ready for the weekend rush.
“We try to follow the same tradition here by making Indian sweets at home and sharing it with friends on Diwali,” Radhakrishnan told CharlotteFive. This year, the sweets she described include:
- Mysore pak: A soft, fudgelike sweet, made with chickpeas flour, sugar and butter.
- Adhirasam: Crispy on the outside and soft on the inside, made with rice flour, palm sugar, oil and a hint of cardamom.
- Ladoo: Crispy deep-fried chickpea balls that are soaked in sugar syrup and mixed with cashew nuts, raisins and a hint of cardamom or rose essence.
Diwali 2024 celebrations in Charlotte:
BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir is holding a kids Diwali festival on Sunday, Oct. 27 with a $5 cash only entrance fee at 4100 Margaret Wallace Road in Matthews. There will be food, exhibitions, games and inflatables from 1-5 p.m.
- Botiwalla at Optimist Hall is hosting a Diwali mela on Nov. 1 from 5-9 p.m., with a family-friendly party including food specials, henna tattoos, sparklers and other festivities.
Editor’s note: A version of this story appeared in 2021 and in years since and has been updated.
This story was originally published October 20, 2022 at 6:05 AM.
