India's Festival of Lights, or Diwali, is the most important Hindu celebration. The high point in 2012 is on November 13. Due to its spiritual and social significance, the festival is often compared to Christmas. In northern India, Diwali also coincides with New Year's Day.
The key element of the Diwali Festival is light. In the past, little oil lamps were placed in rows along window sills or in doorways. Today, more and more electric lights are being used to illuminate homes, businesses and streets all across the country with decorative strings of tiny lightbulbs.
In Hindu tradition, every worship or prayer begins with praise for Ganesha, the elephant god. He is the god of success and prosperity - which explains the money - and the god who clears all obstacles out of one's path.
Traditionally. Diwali is dedicated to the sweet goddess of good fortune, Lakshmi. But in some eastern India states - for instance, West Bengal - it is Kali who is worshipped. Also known as "the Black One," she is the goddess of death and destruction.
In 2009, US President Barack Obama celebrated Diwali for the first time in the Whie House. Some three million ethnic Indians live in the United States. At the same time, Obama congratulated Hindus around the world as they marked their New Year. This picture of Obama and his wife, Michelle, was taken in 2010.
Thousands of Hindus live in Pakistan, India's western neighbor. They also celebrate Diwali - with sparklers and firecrackers - like here in Karachi.
Especially in villages and smaller towns it is customary for girls and women to go from house to house together and display elaborate and beautiful works of art in people's courtyards. They are made of colorful powders and flowers.
Diwali is a festival for the entire nation. The Festival of Lights is observed by all ethnic groups in every region of India, as well as by other religious groups. Across the country schools are closed for the holidays.
Two days before the start of the actual light festival, people go out and buy valuables made of metal. The day is known as 'Dhanteras'. The goods can be jewelry or gold, but also cooking pots for the household. In villages, farmers bless their livestock on this day because it represents an important source of income for them.
In many regions of India, it is customary to get a blessing for the new utensils purchased during the Diwali Festival. These can be laptops, televisions and even refrigerators.
The manufacturers of all kinds of sweet things have to work overtime in the weeks before Diwali. It is a tradition to give your neighbors, friends or colleagues some delicious treat. Milk, sugar, grits, pistachios, or almonds are the main ingredients.
Strings of real flowers, but also plastic ones, decorate doors all over India. The most important doorways, like a home's main entrance, are especially colorful. Lakshmi, the goddess of good fortune, after all, needs to find the house!
This picture is a snapshot of a marketplace, bursting with shoppers, in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad. For Diwali, people often wait until the last minute to buy gifts for the family, friends and neighbors. Shopkeepers couldn't be happier!
A few days before this year's Diwali Festival, activists from an NGO in Kolkata protested against child labor and released homemade balloons into the night sky. Children are still commonly exploited in India for manufacturing fireworks and the elaborate but tiny 'diyas,' or oil lamps.
India's Festival of Lights, or Diwali, is the most important Hindu celebration. The high point in 2012 is on November 13. Due to its spiritual and social significance, the festival is often compared to Christmas. In northern India, Diwali also coincides with New Year's Day.
India's Festival of Lights, or Diwali, is the most important Hindu celebration. The high point in 2012 is on November 13. Due to its spiritual and social significance, the festival is often compared to Christmas. In northern India, Diwali also coincides with New Year's Day.
