Diwali 2026

Australia keeps Diwali in the southern spring, and the big fairs run through the fortnight before the day itself. The Hindu Council of Australia’s Deepavali Fair at Blacktown Showground in western Sydney (Saturday 24 and Sunday 25 October 2026, free) bills itself as Australia’s biggest, with Ravan Dahan, a Ramayan presentation and fireworks; the Victorian Festival of Diwali fills Federation Square in Melbourne on Saturday 31 October, Celebrate India’s twenty-first; the same day the Hindu Council’s Festival of Lights is at Mount Gravatt Showgrounds in Brisbane (free, with a thirty-foot Ravan) and the Indian Society of WA’s Grand Diwali Celebration on Langley Park in Perth runs over two evenings, 31 October and 1 November; Adelaide’s Deepavali Mela at the Showground follows on Saturday 7 November, with Bollywood Diwali parties in every capital on the Friday and Saturday before Diwali itself, Sunday 8 November.

Diwali is not a public holiday in any state or territory, so the fairs fall on the weekends around it. Private fireworks are illegal in every state and the ACT — only the Northern Territory allows them, and only on Territory Day in July, with Tasmania on a permit — so the fireworks are the fairs’ own, and families light diyas and oil lamps at home.

Canada’s Diwali is biggest in the Greater Toronto Area and in Surrey, and it runs for a month: Canada Diwali RazzMatazz on Mississauga’s Celebration Square (9–11 October 2026, with Jasbir Jassi and Richa Sharma in free concerts), North York Diwali Fest at Mel Lastman Square (23 October), Brampton’s Karwachauth Bazaar and Diwali Mela at the Galaxy Grand Convention Centre (23 October), RED FM’s Diwali Dhamaka in Mississauga (24 October), Calgary (1 November) and on Surrey Civic Plaza (7 November), and Bollywood Diwali parties in every city on the Friday and Saturday before the day itself, Sunday 8 November.

Diwali is not a statutory holiday anywhere in Canada, so the celebrations fall on the weekends around it. Mississauga’s by-law allows consumer fireworks at home on Diwali (in 2026, Sunday 8 November, 6 to 10 pm, on private property only), but Brampton bans all fireworks — sale, possession and use — and leaves the fireworks to the City’s own Diwali Mela at Sesquicentennial Park; Calgary does not allow personal fireworks at all, and most other cities allow them only on Victoria Day, Canada Day and New Year’s Eve, so check your city’s by-law before buying.

Berlin, Munich, Frankfurt and Hamburg each have association Diwali evenings — dinner, dance and a children’s programme — and the universities with large Indian student bodies hold their own. Temples keep Lakshmi Puja. Fireworks are only sold in the last days of December in Germany, so the night ends with candles and sparklers.

The UK keeps the largest Diwali in Europe. The Mayor of London’s Diwali on the Square fills Trafalgar Square — on Sunday 25 October in 2026, free, no booking — and Leicester, whose Belgrave Road is one of the best-known Diwali streets outside India, holds its Diwali Day on Sunday 8 November 2026 at Cossington Recreation Ground, with the Belgrave Road lights switched on two weeks before.

The BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir in Neasden draws crowds on Diwali and for Annakut, the Hindu New Year, the day after. Wembley, Harrow, Southall and Birmingham’s Soho Road fill with people buying sweets and new clothes, and every gurdwara keeps Bandi Chhor Divas the same night. Fireworks are legal on Diwali night: the usual 11pm curfew is extended to 1am, and licensed shops may sell them for the three days before.

The United States keeps the biggest Diwali outside India, almost all of it on the weekends before the day itself. New York’s is Diwali at Times Square on Saturday 24 October 2026 — free, ending with the diya-lighting countdown on the One Times Square tower. Then the melas: the San Jose Diwali Carnival on Plaza de César Chávez (24 October), the Diwali Street Mela on Artesia’s Pioneer Boulevard in Los Angeles County (25 October), the Dussehra–Diwali fireworks night at the Alameda County Fairgrounds in Pleasanton (17 October), the Dallas-area melas in McKinney (24 October) and Frisco (1 November), and Hum Sub Diwali in Cary, North Carolina (10 October). Diwali itself, Sunday 8 November, is kept at home and in the temples; the BAPS mandirs hold Annakut the next morning.

It is not a federal holiday, but Pennsylvania (2024), Connecticut (2025) and California (since 2026, where schools may close and state employees may take the day) recognise it in state law. New York City’s public schools have closed for Diwali since 2023, but in 2026 it falls on a Sunday, so there is no closure that year. Consumer fireworks are a state and city matter, and most cities allow nothing beyond sparklers outside the Fourth of July, so families light diyas and leave the fireworks to the fairground shows.

Ireland’s Diwali is mostly Dublin’s. The Ireland India Council has held a civic Diwali, Festival of Lights, with Dublin City Council since 2008, and in 2025 the Lord Mayor hosted Diwali at the Mansion House; the biggest community celebration is the Vedic Hindu Cultural Centre Ireland’s Diwali Festival of Lights at the National Basketball Arena in Tymon, Dublin 24, on Saturday 14 November 2026. On the day itself, Sunday 8 November, families go to the Ireland Vinayaka Temple in Kingswood, the VHCCI temple in Walkinstown and ISKCON on Middle Abbey Street, and the Diwali club nights at Soho and Wigwam fill the Friday and Saturday before.

Outside Dublin the associations keep it: KASSI’s Diwali in Dundalk (1 November), the Hindu Association of Ireland’s at Ahane Hall near Limerick (14 November), ICSC’s Galway Festival of Lights at Leisureland in Salthill, and the Indian community’s in Cork, which has no temple yet. Diwali is not a public holiday; the October bank holiday, Monday 26 October, comes a fortnight earlier. Fireworks are illegal for the public: import licences go only to professional displays, and having fireworks to sell or supply, lighting them or throwing one can bring up to a €10,000 fine and five years in prison, so homes are lit with diyas and candles.

Italy’s Diwali is mostly the Unione Induista Italiana’s (UII) Dipavali programme, a run of free, registration-only days in several cities every autumn. In 2026 it is in Turin (Sunday 25 October at the Polo del ’900, and Thursday 29 October), Pontedera (Saturday 7 November), Milan (Thursday 12 November at the Teatro Bruno Munari) and Rome (Sunday 15 November at the Auditorium del Massimo), with Lakshmi puja, Indian classical dance and music, workshops and food. The Punjabi Sikh communities of the farm and dairy towns of Lombardy, Emilia and the Latina plain usually keep the same night at their gurdwaras as Bandi Chhor Divas, Sunday 8 November, each with its own programme.

Diwali is not a public holiday in Italy. The Interior Ministry’s notice in the Gazzetta Ufficiale of 5 December 2025 gives the UII’s date as Sunday 8 November 2026, and article 25 of law 246/2012 lets members of the bodies the UII represents ask to observe Dipavali, within the flexibility of work organisation and subject to essential services. Consumer fireworks are legal only if CE-marked: F2 products are sold to over-18s with valid ID and F3 only to holders of a Questore’s clearance or a gun licence, and a comune may add its own bans, so at home the lights are diyas and candles.

Deepavali in Singapore is a national celebration, and its heart is Little India. The Little India Shop Owners and Heritage Association (LISHA) lights two kilometres of Serangoon Road from 3 October to 29 November 2026; its Festival Village fills Campbell Lane with stalls nightly from 10 October to 8 November, and the Indian Heritage Centre holds a free Deepavali Open House from 17 October. Deepavali eve, Saturday 7 November, brings the biggest crowds. Heartland community clubs hold their own Deepavali nights, mostly on 14 and 21 November, and the Theemithi fire-walk is at the Sri Mariamman Temple in Chinatown on 1 November.

Deepavali is the only Hindu festival among Singapore’s public holidays. In 2026 it falls on Sunday 8 November, so Monday 9 November is a holiday for anyone whose rest day is the Sunday. Singapore keeps the Tamil date, which in 2027 falls a day before Diwali elsewhere. Families light their homes, exchange gifts and pray at the temples: Sri Veeramakaliamman and Sri Srinivasa Perumal on Serangoon Road, Sri Mariamman in Chinatown. Fireworks are illegal under the Dangerous Fireworks Act 1972 — setting them off carries up to two years in jail or a fine of up to $10,000 — so the light is lamps and sparklers.

New Zealand’s Diwali is a pair of free city festivals in the fortnight before the day itself: Wellington’s Diwali Festival of Lights at the TSB Arena and Shed 6 on the waterfront (Sunday 25 October 2026, 2pm to 8.30pm, fireworks over the harbour at 8.50pm) and the BNZ Auckland Diwali Festival on Aotea Square and Queen Street (Saturday 31 October and Sunday 1 November, noon to 9pm) — then the suburbs: Northshore Diwali at Smales Farm (23 October), the Pakuranga and Botany libraries’ Diwali weeks, Dunedin’s Diwali Festival at the Edgar Centre (1 November), and the temples and associations on Diwali itself, Sunday 8 November.

Diwali is not a public holiday in New Zealand. Private fireworks are legal but may be sold only from 2 to 5 November each year, the Guy Fawkes window — which in 2026 falls in the week before Diwali, so a few sparklers at home are possible; the displays are the festivals’ own.

Belgium’s biggest Diwali is the Brussels Diwali Festival on the square in front of the Atomium: two days of food stalls, dance and music from across India’s regions, a Bollywood party and fireworks, organised by Art India, with one ticket covering either day or both (€10 online until 30 September, €15 at the gate, under-12s free). In 2026 it is on Saturday 24 and Sunday 25 October — its tenth edition — two weeks before Diwali itself on Sunday 8 November.

Beyond Brussels, the Antwerp Indian Association (founded in 1979) holds the community’s Diwali evening in Antwerp, and student and regional associations in Leuven and Ghent hold their own on the weekends around the date. Most Indian restaurants put on a Diwali menu for the fortnight. Communes set their own fireworks rules and most forbid private fireworks without a permit, so at home the night is lit with diyas and sparklers.

The Netherlands has two Diwali traditions. The older is Divali, kept by the Surinamese-Hindustani community — the largest Hindu community in the country — in the temples and community centres of The Hague, Rotterdam and Amsterdam Zuidoost. The newer is the Indian expat community’s, whose biggest day is the free Diwali Festival Amstelveen on the Stadsplein: on Saturday 31 October 2026, a week before Diwali itself on Sunday 8 November.

Around The Hague, the Maitri Foundation’s free Diwali Festival at De Broodfabriek in Rijswijk runs from noon to seven with ceremonies, music, dance and food. Consumer fireworks may only be set off around New Year’s Eve in the Netherlands, so Diwali here is lit with diyas, candles and lanterns.

Diwali is not a public holiday in the UAE, but Dubai keeps it as a city festival. Its Festival of Lights runs citywide from 2 to 12 November 2026 with cultural events, fireworks and Diwali shopping deals, and its anchor is Noor: Festival of Lights at Souk Al Seef on the Creek (7–8 November), produced by Teamwork Arts with Dubai Festivals and Retail Establishment — processions, music, comedy and fireworks. Global Village, opening its season on 14 October, has kept Diwali in past years with a mela and fireworks at its India Pavilion. Diwali itself is Sunday 8 November, a weekend day.

The day itself is the temples’: in Dubai, the Hindu Temple in Jebel Ali’s Worship Village and Shreenathji Haveli, the Krishna temple that stayed in Bur Dubai when the old Shiv Mandir closed in January 2024; in Abu Dhabi, the BAPS Hindu Mandir at Abu Mureikhah, where Diwali and the Annakut after it drew over sixty thousand in 2025 and every visitor must register online first. Dhanteras, Friday 6 November, fills the Deira Gold Souk and Bur Dubai’s Meena Bazaar. Fireworks count as licensed explosives under Federal Decree-Law No. 17 of 2019, so homes are lit with diyas and the fireworks are the public shows’ own.

Portugal’s Diwali is above all the Comunidade Hindu de Portugal’s. The community grew from 1975, when families left Mozambique after its decolonisation, was constituted in 1982 and counts about 9,000 members in the Lisbon and Porto areas; it keeps the Templo Radha Krishna in Lumiar, Lisbon, and stages the Diwali Show, a family dance show now past its 25th edition, on Sunday 29 November 2026 at the Aula Magna of the University of Lisbon’s Reitoria, three weeks after Diwali itself on Sunday 8 November. The temple’s published timetable has an evening programme from 18:00 to 20:30 with the aarti at 19:30; the Sikh temple in Odivelas has no page of its own that we could find, and no other organiser’s Diwali programme for 2026 had been published by 30 October.

Diwali is not a public holiday in Portugal: the Labour Code’s list of mandatory national holidays (article 234) has no Hindu festival, and Sunday 8 November is a rest day for most people anyway. Consumer fireworks come under Decreto-Lei 135/2015: they must be CE-marked, are not sold to under-16s (class F2) or under-18s (F3), and must be used as sold, with the PSP and GNR enforcing the rules and the câmara able to add conditions, so homes are lit with diyas and candles.

Luxembourg’s community is small enough that one evening gathers most of it: the Indian Association Luxembourg’s Diwali Gala, a ticketed dinner with Bollywood, bhangra, garba and classical dance, live music and a DJ. The association has kept Diwali since it was founded in 1991; the 2025 gala was at Cercle Cité in Luxembourg City on the Saturday of the Diwali weekend. Diwali 2026 falls on Sunday 8 November.

The Indian Business Chamber of Luxembourg has run its own Diwali celebrations as well, for several years in the Chapito of Casino 2000 in Mondorf-les-Bains, and families mark the night itself at home.

Switzerland’s Diwali is the Indian associations’ and the temples’, and almost all of it falls on the Saturdays from 31 October to 21 November 2026 rather than on Sunday 8 November itself. The Embassy of India in Bern lists 26 associations, and the dated 2026 programmes are the Indian Students’ Association Zurich’s Diwali at ETH (7 November, sold out when checked on 30 October), the India Swiss Association’s Diwali Dhamaka in Basel and the Indian Association Baden’s gala in Wettingen (both Saturday 14 November), BAPS Switzerland’s free Annakut celebration in Zurich-Affoltern (Sunday 15 November), and Basel Tamil Sangam’s Deepavali and the Indian Association Wettingen’s party (both Saturday 21 November). The Indian Association of Greater Zurich’s own calendar now lists its Diwali Gala for January 2027, not November. The Tamil temples, the Sri Sivasubramaniar Temple in Adliswil (founded in 1994) and the Saivanerikoodam temple in Bern’s House of Religions, are the other places for the day, but no 2026 Deepavali programme for either had turned up by 30 October.

Diwali is not a public holiday in any canton: 1 August is the only federal holiday and the cantons set the rest, and Diwali is on none of the days SECO lists as equal to Sundays. In the City of Zurich noisy fireworks are allowed without a police permit only on 1 August and on New Year, while sparklers and ground fireworks are fine outdoors, so Diwali night is lit with diyas and sparklers; a federal vote on 29 November 2026 asks whether to ban the sale and private use of noisy fireworks.

France’s Diwali has two homes. In Paris it is the Tamil community’s Deepavali in La Chapelle, the Little India of the 10th and 18th arrondissements, around the Sri Manicka Vinayakar Alayam on the rue Pajol, and the Indian associations’ evenings: the France Telugu Association’s at the Maison de l’Inde (1 November 2026), Maharashtra Mandal France’s in Suresnes (7 November) and the Global Indian Organisation of France’s dinner gala by the Opéra (14 November). The other is Réunion, where the town of Saint-André’s five-day Dipavali (11–15 November) draws thousands; on the mainland, Toulouse (31 October), Marseille (7 November) and Montpellier (13–15 November) keep their own.

Diwali itself, Sunday 8 November 2026, is not a public holiday in France, so the celebrations fall on the weekends around it. Tamil families keep Deepavali on the morning of Naraka Chaturdashi — an oil bath before dawn, new clothes, the temple — not the Lakshmi Puja evening; India’s and Sri Lanka’s calendars put both on 8 November this year, though a panchang computed for Paris puts that dawn on Saturday 7 November. A standing order of the Préfecture de police bans certain fireworks in the street in Paris and the inner suburbs, and F2 and F3 fireworks are sold only to adults, so homes keep to diyas and candles.

Japan’s Diwali is the Indian community’s own, and in Tokyo its centre is Nishikasai in Edogawa ward, where a large Indian community lives. Diwali Festa Nishikasai is on Saturday 7 November 2026, from 10am to 4.30pm in Takino Park, with stage dance and music, Indian curry and sweets, a bazaar of gifts and clothes and a prize draw. It is free and needs no booking, is run by the Diwali Festa Nishikasai Executive Committee with the support of the Embassy of India and Edogawa City, and has moved to Takino Park from last year’s site.

Diwali is not a public holiday in Japan: the Cabinet Office’s 2026 list has only Culture Day on 3 November and Labour Thanksgiving Day on 23 November that month, and Diwali itself, Sunday 8 November, is a rest day for most. Hand-held toy fireworks are legal, but parks and streets set their own rules and some ban them outright, and Tokyo’s fire ordinance requires a notice to the fire station before any fireworks other than toys are launched, so the evening is lit with oil lamps and candles.

Spain’s Diwali is kept by associations, temples and gurdwaras rather than by a city festival, and the one dated event we found for Madrid or Barcelona is House of Taj’s ticketed Diwali Night Madrid at Suun on Saturday 14 November. The Sindhi families of the Canary Islands, Ceuta and Melilla are Spain’s oldest Indian community; in Ceuta the Comunidad Hindú, whose temple opened on 22 October 2007, inaugurated an extraordinary Diwali lighting display in the Plaza de los Reyes on 16 October 2025 and had not posted a 2026 date that we could find by 30 October. Catalonia holds more than half of the 60,994 Indian nationals with residence papers (32,415 on 30 June 2026, Ministry of Inclusion), many of them Punjabi Sikhs, for whom Bandi Chhor Divas falls on Diwali night, and ISKCON Barcelona’s free Sunday programme (17:30 to 20:30) falls on Diwali itself, Sunday 8 November.

Diwali is not a public holiday in Spain: the Labour Ministry’s list of fiestas laborales for 2026, published in the BOE on 28 October 2025, has no Indian festival. Fireworks are governed by Real Decreto 989/2015 and each ayuntamiento can add its own conditions or bans in its streets, so check the town’s bando before buying; at home the night is lit with diyas and candles.

Thailand’s Diwali is the Indian community’s, above all at the Tamil Sri Maha Mariamman Temple on Silom Road, which is lit up for Deepavali, and in Phahurat, the Little India of textile shops and sweet sellers. On 30 October the Tourism Authority of Thailand joined the launch of the Amazing Thailand Grand Diwali Festival 2026: seven free celebrations from 3 to 29 November, organised by the Indian Association of Thailand and the Thai–India Trade and Tourism Association, in collaboration with the Authority and the Embassy of India. Four are in Bangkok (Central Bangrak, ICONSIAM’s Riverpark, Phahurat and EMQUARTIER), two in Pattaya and one in Phuket. Diwali 2026 is Sunday 8 November.

Diwali is not a public holiday in Thailand. Police say that setting off fireworks without permission is a criminal offence under the Firearms, Ammunition, Explosives, Fireworks and Imitation Firearms Act, with up to three years in prison and a fine of up to 60,000 baht, and that parts of Bangkok impose strict bans in festival periods, so the festival’s light comes from diyas, lanterns and the organised shows.

Bahrain’s Diwali centres on the Shrinathji Temple in the Manama Souq, built in 1817 by the Thattai Bhatia community from Sindh and run by the Thattai Hindu community; its surroundings are lit with diyas, candles and lanterns around Diwali. The festival is also kept in the Indian schools, where Bahrain Indian School has held Diwali programmes with assemblies, lanterns and diyas, dance and song, and at the community’s receptions: in 2025 a representative of the Crown Prince and Prime Minister, ministers and the Indian ambassador attended one.

Diwali is not a public holiday in Bahrain, and Sunday 8 November is a working day, so the puja is in the evening after work and the family gatherings fall on Friday 6 and Saturday 7 November. Fireworks are a controlled item in Bahrain: the Ministry of Interior is the responsible authority and lighting them without a permit is punishable, so the night is lit with lamps.

Diwali in Fiji is a public holiday on Monday 9 November 2026, a day later than the Sunday 8 November on which most countries keep it. Cabinet endorsed the date among the year’s eleven public holidays and the Government Gazette of 9 October confirmed it, as the Fiji Times and Fiji Sun reported, and Drik Panchang’s calendar for Suva puts Lakshmi Puja on the Monday as well, with Dhanteras on Friday 6 November and Naraka Chaturdashi on Sunday 8 November. The day is kept at the temples, at home, and in schools and offices that hold their own programmes — the TISI Sangam’s Sri Siva Subramaniya Swami Temple in Nadi and the Sri Raj Maha Mariamman Temple on Howell Road in Suva among them — and on 22 October Shree Sanatan Dharm Pratinidhi Sabha of Fiji asked businesses and Government bodies that hold Diwali functions to respect the festival’s religious meaning and to leave out alcohol and meat.

No council, temple or Sabha programme for Suva or Lautoka had been published by 30 October. Fireworks are tied to set hours: the fireworks rules under the Explosives Act allow them from 5pm to 10pm on ordinary days and until midnight on Diwali, buyers must be 18, shops need a licence from the Mineral Resources Department and homemade fireworks are banned; police and the Department have restated the Diwali hours each year, but a 2026 notice had not been found by 30 October.

Guyana’s Diwali is the Diwali Motorcade. The Guyana Hindu Dharmic Sabha, which has run it for more than fifty years, sends floats from Demerara, Essequibo and Berbice from the Shri Krishna Mandir in Campbelville to the LBI Community Centre Ground on Saturday 7 November 2026, the evening before Diwali on Sunday 8 November, with a free concert and prize-giving from 7pm; regional motorcades run in Berbice on Sunday 1 November, in Essequibo on Thursday 5 November and in Demerara on Friday 6 November. In the weeks before, the Sabha lights the Kitty Seawall Roundabout in Georgetown (Deep Jale, Wednesday 4 November) and holds a ticketed dinner concert with Ankush Bhardwaj of Indian Idol at the Railway Courtyard on Saturday 31 October.

Deepavali is a public holiday under the Public Holidays Act, which gives it as Deepavali Day or, if that day is a Sunday, the following day. With Diwali on Sunday 8 November 2026 the day off is therefore Monday 9 November; the Minister is to publish the notice in the Gazette, and none for 2026 had been found by 30 October, including on the Department of Public Information’s site. Firecrackers are explosives in Guyana: the police warn every year that selling or possessing them without a permit is an offence, so the light at home is oil lamps (deyas).

Diwali in Hong Kong is kept at the temples and in the South Asian community’s homes rather than at a city festival. The day, Sunday 8 November 2026, is not a public holiday — it is not on the Government’s 2026 list, though Sundays are general holidays anyway. Families go to the Hindu Temple at 1B Wong Nai Chung Road in Happy Valley, buy outfits in the Tsim Sha Tsui arcades such as Chungking Mansions and Mirador Mansion, and book Diwali menus at Indian restaurants, as they did for Diwali 2025. No temple or community programme for 2026 had been published by 30 October.

Fireworks are not an option: they are dangerous goods under the Dangerous Goods Ordinance (Cap. 295), and anyone who illegally manufactures, stores, conveys or uses them is liable to up to 12 months in prison and a fine of HK$200,000, with a separate offence for setting them off recklessly under the Summary Offences Ordinance. The light at home and in the temples is diyas and lamps.

Diwali is not a public holiday in Kenya. At State House in October 2024 President Ruto told Hindu leaders his government would decide on making it one by the next Diwali, and that a change would have to go to Parliament; it is not on 2026’s list of public holidays. Diwali 2026 is Sunday 8 November, so families celebrate on the day itself, with the Lakshmi Puja in the evening. The Hindu Council of Kenya, the community’s umbrella body, lists its programmes on hck.or.ke; its events page said on 30 October 2026 that no activities or events were scheduled.

Fireworks need a licence from the State Department for Mining. For Diwali 2025 the Ministry of Mining, Blue Economy and Maritime Affairs allowed displays only from 17 to 20 October, 7pm to 11pm, at clubs, hotels, temples, sports grounds and school compounds or other sites cleared by an Inspector of Explosives, with shells in built-up areas capped at four inches; no notice for 2026 had been found on the State Department for Mining’s website by 30 October.

Kuwait has no Hindu temple, and the government has not registered any non-Abrahamic religious community, so Diwali is kept at home and in gatherings of the Indian community. The Embassy of India has marked it in past years, with a Diwali get-together at India House on Sunday 3 November 2024 and a ‘Hala Diwali’ cultural evening at the embassy auditorium in October 2019; no programme for 2026 had been announced by 30 October.

Diwali is not a public holiday in Kuwait, and Sunday 8 November is a working day, so the weekend of Friday 6 and Saturday 7 November is the time for family visits, sweets and restaurant Diwali menus, with the puja at home on the Sunday evening. Fireworks are tightly regulated: the Interior Ministry banned fireworks displays without prior security approval in December 2025 and treats importing, storing or using fireworks in breach of the rules as a criminal offence, so the night is lit with lamps.

Deepavali in Malaysia is a public holiday and the main day of the Hindu community, most of it Tamil: on Sunday 8 November 2026 the day traditionally begins with an oil bath before dawn, new clothes and prayers at the temple, then open houses. The public side is the bazaars. Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) runs its Deepavali bazaar from Friday 9 October to Saturday 7 November, 10am to midnight, and in 2026 it has gathered the Brickfields stalls on one site for the first time, the car park of DBKL’s Sports and Recreation Centre and Jalan Tun Sambanthan 1, with a second, smaller bazaar on Jalan Bunus 6 at Masjid India. Ipoh City Council holds its Deepavali Lamps event on Lorong Seni on Saturday 31 October, and in George Town, Penang, the city council has closed Lebuh Pasar, Lebuh China, Lebuh King and Lebuh Penang in Little India to traffic on several days up to 7 November for Deepavali.

Deepavali is a public holiday in every state except Sarawak, and because 8 November is a Sunday, Monday 9 November is a replacement holiday in most states, Penang among them. Firecrackers are explosives under the Explosives Act 1957: only a short list of types is authorised for sale, and sellers need a permit from the district police chief, so homes are lit mostly with oil lamps and with kolam, the patterns drawn at the doorstep.

Divali is a public holiday in Mauritius, an island with a large Hindu community. The Prime Minister’s Office lists it for Sunday 8 November 2026 (General Notice No. 611 of 2026), and in a communiqué dated 2 October it confirmed that Monday 9 November is a public holiday too, under an amendment to the Public Holidays Act that came into force on 13 August 2026. Six days before Divali, Monday 2 November is the Arrival of Indentured Labourers holiday, which recalls the labourers who landed at the Aapravasi Ghat in Port Louis from 1834 and from whom many of the island’s Hindu families descend.

On Divali evening Hindu families light oil lamps (diyas) at their doors and in the temples, perform the Lakshmi puja at dusk and share sweets with neighbours and relatives. Temples and Hindu associations announce their programmes only a few days ahead, and none for 2026 had been found by 30 October.

Muscat has two Hindu temples, both kept by the Indian merchant community that has lived in Oman for generations: the Motishwar Mahadev Temple complex in Muttrah, one of the oldest Hindu temples in the Gulf, and the Shri Krishna Temple in Darsait, founded in the 1980s. Both keep Diwali, and have held the Lakshmi Puja on the festival evening in past years. Diwali 2026 is Sunday 8 November, a working day in Oman, so the temples are busiest after office hours.

Diwali is not a public holiday in Oman. Shops and malls fill in the fortnight before, as they did in 2025 according to Oman Observer, and families wear new clothes, visit the temples and exchange gifts. Fireworks are contraband under the GCC Common Customs Law, and the Royal Oman Police warned in 2018 that selling them can bring up to three years in prison and a fine of up to OMR 3,000, so homes are lit with lamps.

Poland’s Diwali is small and kept mostly at the temples and by the Indian community’s own groups. The places with a fixed address are ISKCON’s main Polish temple at Mysiadło near Warsaw (open since 1989), its temple in Wrocław and the Radha Govind Bhakti Yog Mandir at Brzegi between Kraków and Wieliczka, opened in 2022; in Wrocław the Indian and Hindu community held a Diwali in the airport terminal on Sunday 2 November 2025, with garba, and we found no 2026 programme for any of them by 30 October.

Diwali is not a public holiday in Poland: the 2026 holiday list on gov.pl runs from New Year’s Day to Christmas and has no Hindu festival, and Sunday 8 November is a Sunday in any case (Independence Day, Wednesday 11 November, follows three days later). Fireworks are not sold to under-18s according to the police, the statute fixes no season for using them, and letting them off in a way that disturbs the peace is an offence under article 51 of the Code of Petty Offences, so homes are lit with diyas and candles.

Qatar has no Hindu temple open to the public, so Diwali is kept at home and in the programmes of the Indian community: the Indian Cultural Centre (ICC) and the state and language associations affiliated to it put on cultural evenings, and hotels and Indian restaurants offer Diwali menus. The associations usually announce their evenings only about two weeks ahead, and none for 2026 had been published by 30 October.

Diwali is not a public holiday in Qatar, and Sunday 8 November is a working day, since the weekend is Friday and Saturday. The family gatherings and shows therefore fall on Friday 6 November (Dhanteras) and Saturday 7 November, with the Lakshmi Puja at home on Sunday evening after work. Personal fireworks and firecrackers are tightly controlled in Qatar and need authorisation, so the night is lit with lamps, candles and electric lights.

Saudi Arabia has no Hindu temples, and the public practice of any non-Islamic religion is not permitted; the US State Department’s 2022 report on religious freedom records that non-Muslims could practise their religion only in private. Diwali in Riyadh, Jeddah and the Eastern Province is therefore kept at home, with lamps, sweets and a puja at the family shrine, and in private gatherings of the Indian community. The Embassy of India in Riyadh held a Diwali celebration for the community in October 2024.

Diwali is not a public holiday in Saudi Arabia and Sunday 8 November is a working day, so the family gatherings fall on the Friday and Saturday before it; Dhanteras is Friday 6 November. Making, possessing, selling or using fireworks requires a permit under the Explosives and Fireworks Law, and dealing in them without one can bring up to six months in prison and a fine of SR100,000, so the lights are lamps and candles.

South Africa’s Diwali is above all Durban’s, where much of the country’s Indian-South African community lives. The South African Hindu Maha Sabha’s Durban Diwali Festival fills the Suncoast Parking Site on the beachfront for three days, Friday 30 October to Sunday 1 November 2026, with tickets at R20 for adults and R10 for children, a week before Diwali itself on Sunday 8 November. On the day the temples of Chatsworth and Phoenix, such as the Sri Sri Radha Radhanath Temple of Understanding in Chatsworth, usually keep Lakshmi Puja in the evening, each at its own hour, and in Johannesburg the celebration is Lenasia’s, at ISKCON Lenasia and the suburb’s other temples and in homes.

Diwali is not a public holiday in South Africa, and in 2026 it falls on a Sunday. In eThekwini, the Durban metro, the municipality said in 2024 that consumer fireworks may be used at a home only on Guy Fawkes night, on Diwali between sunset and midnight, and on New Year’s Eve from 11.45pm to 12.15am; children under 16 may handle them only under an adult’s supervision, and fines of up to R3,500 have been reported for breaches.

Sweden’s Diwali is the community’s own: the temples, the Indian associations and a few private organisers who rent halls in Stockholm and Gothenburg and announce a few weeks ahead. The Hindu Mandir Society’s temple in Helenelund, Sollentuna, opened in September 1998, listed Navratri (11 to 19 October) and its 28th anniversary (18 October) on its events page but no Diwali programme as of 23 October, and ISKCON’s temple in Gothenburg, at Karl Johansgatan 57, holds Sunday feasts and festivals; no ticketed Diwali event for 2026 in Stockholm or Gothenburg had turned up by 30 October.

Diwali is not a public holiday in Sweden: the Act on public holidays (SFS 1989:253) names only Sundays and a set of Christian, seasonal and national days, and 8 November 2026 is a Sunday. The police give 18 as the age limit for buying, holding and using fireworks, bangers (smällare) have been banned since 2002 except for trained users with a municipal permit, and each municipality can set rules on where and when fireworks may be let off, so homes are lit with diyas and candles.

Diwali in Tanzania is kept by the Hindu community of Dar es Salaam and a few other towns, above all in the temples. In Dar es Salaam the BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir on Kisutu Street was rebuilt as a ten-storey mandir and consecrated in December 2024, and the Shree Swaminarayan temple stands on Morogoro Road; the city also has a Sanatan Dharma Sabha temple, an ISKCON centre and Shree Hindu Mandal, which dates its start to a dispensary opened in 1919, which runs a hospital. In Zanzibar the Shree Shiv Shakti temple in Stone Town is the Hindu community’s centre. Diwali 2026 is Sunday 8 November, a weekend day, with Dhanteras on Friday 6 November and the Lakshmi Puja in the evening; by 30 October we had found no 2026 programme from the temples, and the High Commission of India’s website listed no Diwali event when last checked, on 23 October.

Diwali is not a public holiday in Tanzania: it is not among the days in the schedule of the Public Holidays Act, which the President may add to by proclamation. Fireworks need official permission. On 31 December 2025 the Dar es Salaam Regional Commissioner, Albert Chalamila, told residents not to set them off without authorisation from the relevant authorities, as the government barred fireworks and tyre-burning for that New Year; no Diwali-specific notice turned up, so homes and temples are lit with diyas and lamps.

Divali in Trinidad and Tobago is a public holiday, and its public face is the National Council of Indian Culture’s Divali Nagar at Endeavour, Chaguanas — a fair the council has run since 1986, which its president, Surujdeo Mangaroo, calls the country’s second-largest festival after Carnival. In 2026 it runs for nine days, from Friday 30 October to Saturday 7 November, ending the night before Divali itself on Sunday 8 November. Mangaroo said at the launch that about 320,000 people came in 2025 and at least 400,000 are expected this year; the theme is “Viveka: Discerning Truth in the Age of AI”, and the council puts the cost at close to TT$5 million after bmobile withdrew its sponsorship.

The President’s notification of 20 October appoints Sunday 8 November as the Divali holiday. Under section 3(2) of the Public Holidays and Festivals Act a public holiday that falls on a Sunday passes to the next day that is not itself a holiday, so Monday 9 November is expected to be a day off too. Since 19 December 2025 fireworks need a permit from the Commissioner of Police, except on a public holiday between 8pm and 9pm, and are barred within half a mile of hospitals, the airport, zoos, animal shelters, livestock farms, forest reserves and national parks; the council held no fireworks at the Nagar in 2025.

Kampala’s Diwali is the Indian Association of Uganda’s Diwali Food Festival at Speke Resort Munyonyo, on Lake Victoria, which the association holds with the High Commission of India and the Ruparelia Group. The 2025 edition, on Sunday 19 October, had 108 food stalls and 21 cultural performances and, in the association’s count, more than 8,000 visitors; the 2024 one, on Sunday 27 October, included a fireworks display on the resort’s marina. No date for 2026 had been published by 30 October, and the High Commission’s website carried no Diwali notice that day. President Museveni and the First Lady hosted the community at State House, Entebbe, for a Diwali dinner on Sunday 26 October 2025.

On the day itself, Sunday 8 November, the temples usually keep the Lakshmi Puja in the evening: the Shree Sanatan Dharma Mandal temple near Nakasero Market, inaugurated in 1961, and the BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir, which BAPS dates to 1960; BAPS listed Diwali and Annakut programmes at its centres across Africa in 2024. Diwali is not a public holiday in Uganda and is not on the foreign ministry’s list of 2026 holidays. Fireworks displays are for licensed blasters under the Explosives Act and cleared by the police; for New Year 2026 the police capped displays at five minutes and said they did not want people setting off their own, so homes are lit with diyas.