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 ISWA’s Diwali Mela on Langley Park in Perth (free, 3pm to 9pm); 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 free 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. Brampton and Mississauga are among the cities whose by-laws allow family fireworks on Diwali; most others allow them only on Victoria Day, Canada Day and New Year’s Eve, so check your city’s by-law before buying.

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. 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 (6–8 November), produced by Teamwork Arts with Dubai Festivals and Retail Establishment and the Consulate General of India — 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.