Diwali Dates and Holidays
How the world celebratesDiwali is a five-day season, not a single day.
Quick answers
| Place | When is it? | How the date is set |
|---|---|---|
| India · Dhanteras | November 6, 2026Estimated date | Two days before the main day; the tithi sequence in the Indian lunisolar calendar may be compressed, so the actual date depends on local almanacs |
| India · Diwali / Deepavali | November 8, 2026 | The new moon day of the month of Kartika in the Hindu lunisolar calendar; the third day of a five-day festival period |
| India · Govardhan Puja | November 9, 2026Estimated date | The day after the main day; the tithi sequence in the Indian lunisolar calendar may be compressed, so the actual date depends on local almanacs |
| India · Bhai Dooj | November 10, 2026Estimated date | Two days after the main day; the tithi sequence in the Indian lunisolar calendar may be compressed, so the actual date depends on local almanacs |
| United States · Diwali | November 8, 2026Estimated date | Under New York State law, New York City public schools are closed on the day of Diwali |
| Brazil | Not observed here | Not on the official list |
| China | Not observed here | Not on the official list |
| Indonesia | Not observed here | Not on the official list |
| Japan | Not observed here | Not on the official list |
| Taiwan | Not observed here | Not on the official list |
See the 2026 annual holiday calendar →World questions on this topic →
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How the world celebrates
- November 6, 2026Local dateEstimated date
How does India mark Diwali Dates and Holidays? · Dhanteras
The season opens with Dhanteras. The customary act is buying gold or new metal utensils and offering prayers at home, treating acquisition itself as a way of welcoming abundance. It usually falls two days before the main day, but days in the Hindu lunisolar calendar can compress, so the actual date follows local almanacs. What is bought, and how much, depends heavily on income and region. Since 2016 this day carries an additional official identity: the Indian government also designated it National Ayurveda Day, on the ground that it is the birth anniversary of Dhanvantari, the physician of the gods. Two things therefore sit on the same date — the household buying of metal and the lighting of lamps that continue as before, and a nationwide campaign run by the health authorities. A traditional festival being used as a public-health calendar slot happens on none of the other four days.
- November 8, 2026Local date
How does India mark Diwali Dates and Holidays? · Diwali / Deepavali
The main day is the third of the five. Households light lamps and offer prayers to Ganesha and Lakshmi for prosperity. India's tourism ministry points to Ayodhya, Varanasi, Amritsar, Jaipur, and southern regions as places where the season is most visible, but how many lamps are lit, which deities are honoured, and whether there are fireworks vary a great deal between households. In 2025 Deepavali was inscribed on UNESCO's list of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
- November 8, 2026Local dateEstimated date
How does United States mark Diwali Dates and Holidays? · Diwali
Diwali is not a federal holiday in the United States, but New York State passed legislation in November 2023 closing New York City public schools on the day. Its meaning is therefore different from India's: not a national religious season, but one city's administrative recognition of who lives there. The closure follows the Indian calendar, so it lands on a different Gregorian date each year.
- November 9, 2026Local dateEstimated date
How does India mark Diwali Dates and Holidays? · Govardhan Puja
The fourth day of the season is Govardhan Puja. It commemorates Krishna lifting Mount Govardhan to shelter villagers from the rain, and is commonly kept with an annakut, an offering of food heaped into a hill, stacking the mountain and the idea of abundance into one image. The day shifts the weight of the five-day season from household wealth towards community and livestock — Diwali is not only lamps; a whole narrative of farming life sits in the middle of it.
- November 10, 2026Local dateEstimated date
How does India mark Diwali Dates and Holidays? · Bhai Dooj
The season closes with Bhai Dooj, where the focus shifts from deities back to siblings: sisters perform the Tika ceremony and pray for their brothers' long life, and brothers give gifts in return. This keeps Diwali from being only about prosperity; it is also a renewal of kin obligation. Households without siblings, or communities that do not keep this rite, do not treat the season as incomplete. The last of the five days follows a different line of relation: not the household to wealth, nor the household to the gods, but sisters to brothers. The sister marks her brother's forehead and prepares food; the brother answers with a gift. This day explains why treating Diwali as a single evening goes wrong — each of the five days addresses a different party, and this one addresses the mutual keeping between siblings.
- Not observed hereLocal date
Does Brazil have Diwali Dates and Holidays?
There is no Diwali in Brazil. The nationwide holidays are set by Law 662 of 1949, which fixes seven civil dates, plus Law 6.802 of 1980, which adds 12 October for Our Lady of Aparecida. Religious days are handed by Law 9.093 of 1993 to the municipality: each may declare days of observance by municipal law according to local tradition, no more than four, and Good Friday already takes one of those slots. So in Brazil the question of whether a religious festival is a day off is answered not federally but by the town you live in — and there are only four slots to give.
- Not observed hereLocal date
Does China have Diwali Dates and Holidays?
There is no Diwali in China. The Measures on National Holidays and Commemorative Days split into days off for all citizens — New Year, Spring Festival, Qingming, Labour Day, Dragon Boat, Mid-Autumn, National Day — and days off for some — Women's Day, Youth Day, Children's Day, Army Day; neither class contains a religious festival. Religious days here are a local matter: Eid al-Adha and Eid al-Fitr are set as days off by the autonomous regions where the believing population is concentrated, never nationwide. The Hindu calendar does not appear even at that level.
- Not observed hereLocal date
Does Indonesia have Diwali Dates and Holidays?
Indonesia counts Hinduism among its officially recognised religions and gives it a national holiday — but that day is Nyepi, the Balinese Saka new year and the island's day of silence, not Diwali. So the situation here is not that a Hindu festival cannot get in; it is that the one that got in is the Balinese one: Indonesia's Hindu population is concentrated in Bali, the calendar and the festivals follow Bali, and the North Indian Diwali therefore does not appear on the national holiday list. Tamil communities in Medan and elsewhere still keep Deepavali in their own temples.
- Not observed hereLocal date
Does Japan have Diwali Dates and Holidays?
There is no Diwali in Japan. The national holidays number sixteen, listed in one article of the Act on National Holidays; the only two that touch on belief are the spring and autumn equinox days, and their statutory meanings are written as praising nature and remembering ancestors, not as any religion's festival. Put another way, Japan's holiday table keeps no slot for an imported religious festival — not just Diwali is missing; none of them is there.
- Not observed hereLocal date
Does Taiwan have Diwali Dates and Holidays?
There is no Diwali in Taiwan. The Act on Commemorative Days and Holidays enumerates the festivals, and the only one where lamps are the point is the Lantern Festival — the fifteenth of the first lunar month, at the end of winter, while Diwali falls at the end of autumn. Both are festivals of light, but one counts by the moon and the other by a different calendar, and they sit half a year apart. The only religious days in the Act are the Daoist day and the Buddha's birthday; the Hindu calendar is not on that list at all.
Sources and dates
Dates follow local time zones, calendars, and official notices. Check the source when a date is estimated or locally variable.