Why Jaipur is the city for Diwali
The name: Diwali comes from deepavali, a row of lamps.
The story: it celebrates the return of Rama to Ayodhya after fourteen years of exile and his victory over Ravana. People lit lamps to light his way home, and we still do.
Lakshmi's night: in Rajasthan it is above all the festival of the goddess of prosperity, believed to visit clean, bright homes on the darkest night of the year, the new moon of Kartik.
- Nights
- Five: four in Jaipur, one at Samode
- Pace
- Festival days in the city, a quiet palace night in the hills
- Best months
- The Kartik new moon, late October or November
- Good for
- Families, first-timers, lovers of a celebration
- Starts
- Jaipur
- Ends
- Samode, then Jaipur, Shekhawati or Delhi
- Weeks of preparation: families scrub and whitewash their houses, paint the floors, buy something new and light every corner.
- A city of trades: when Sawai Jai Singh II laid out Jaipur in 1727, he planned its bazaars around trades, and merchant and craft families have lived in the same lanes ever since.
- A new year in the books: for a trading family, Diwali starts a new year in the accounts. The old red ledgers called bahi-khata are worshipped with the goddess, and a fresh page is opened with an auspicious mark.
- Johari Bazaar on puja night: shopkeepers in new clothes sit on white cotton sheets, the shop transformed into a shrine.
- Each street its own lights: every bazaar's traders' association decorates its street, often around a theme, and Johari Bazaar, Bapu Bazaar, Tripolia and MI Road are lit end to end.
- Made for this: the rose-pink arcades of the walled city. From a rooftop at dusk, with lamps on every parapet and the Nahargarh hills dark behind, the grid glows like a map drawn in light.
- How we plan it: the way we live it ourselves, with the shopping days of Dhanteras, a quiet palace morning, the puja at dusk on Diwali night and a slow day after at Samode, when the city sleeps off its fireworks.
- Background: our Jaipur guide and our page on Diwali in Rajasthan.
Day by day, through the five days of Diwali
Order over dates: the order of the days matters more than their dates.
- Dhanteras
- For buying metal and new things
- Roop Chaudas
- For bathing and preparing
- Diwali
- The Lakshmi puja and the lamps
- Govardhan Puja
- Annakut offerings in Krishna temples
- Bhai Dooj
- Sisters, brothers and family visits
- When two days merge: if the lunar calendar squeezes two into one, we keep the puja night fixed and move the palace visits and the craft afternoon around it.
- A day to spare: arrive earlier still. The week before Diwali, with the lights going up and the sweet shops at full steam, is almost as beautiful, and the monuments are quieter.
Day 1: Arrive in a lit city
Met at the airport: we take you to your hotel to rest.
- After dark: a slow drive along MI Road and through the gates of the walled city, already strung with lights.
- Chai at Badi Chaupar: as families come out to look at the decorations.
- Early night: dinner at your hotel.
Day 2: Dhanteras, the day of new things
Amber at opening: reach Amber Fort before the holiday crowds and walk the Sheesh Mahal while it is almost empty.
No elephants: we walk or drive you up, and we don't book elephant rides.
- Lunch and a rest: back in the city by late morning.
- The day to buy metal: Dhanteras, two days before Diwali, means gold, silver or at least a new steel pot, for luck through the year.
- A jeweller we trust: one our family has known for decades, never a commission showroom. Buy a small silver coin stamped with Lakshmi, as every Jaipur family does.
- Lights in earnest: walk Johari and Bapu bazaars with your guide in the evening, eat hot kachori from a halwai's pan, and watch the crowds pick out lamps, sweets and marigold garlands.
- Buying well: our guide to gems and jewellery.
Day 3: Roop Chaudas, palace and mandana
The day of beauty: on Roop Chaudas, the day before Diwali, families bathe early after rubbing in ubtan, a paste of gram flour, turmeric and oil. We arrange a gentle version at your hotel spa.
The City Palace: a private tour of the City Palace, including the private rooms of the Chandra Mahal.
- Govind Dev Ji: the temple in the palace garden, where evening worship is especially beautiful in festival week.
- Mandana: an afternoon hour with the women of a Jaipur family drawing mandana, floor paintings in white lime on red earth, laid at thresholds to welcome Lakshmi.
- Mehndi: an artist will paint your hands if you like.
- Rooftop dinner: on a haveli roof facing Hawa Mahal as the first lamps appear on the parapets. Our pages on mehndi and rooftop dining have more.
Day 4: Diwali, the night of lamps
A slow morning: the Jantar Mantar near midday, when its sundials are most legible, or the pool.
Dressing for the night: a sari draped by someone who knows how, or a safa, a Rajasthani turban, tied by a master. Families wear their newest clothes tonight, and so should you.
- The craft explained: our pages on turban tying and how to wear a sari.
- The Lakshmi puja at dusk: in homes and shops across the city. Join the puja of a family we know well, or one at your hotel, with lamps, marigolds, sweets and the goddess's prayers.
- The rooftop: as darkness falls every roof, gate and balcony is lined with clay lamps, fireworks rise over Hawa Mahal and the whole grid glows.
- Late and sweet: dinner is festive and full of sweets.
Day 5: Govardhan Puja, then the hills at Samode
Annakut: the day after Diwali, Krishna temples heap up mountains of food called Annakut, in memory of the hill he lifted to shelter the cowherds.
See the offering: at one of the city's Krishna temples in the late morning, before it is shared with devotees.
- To the hills: about 40 kilometres, roughly an hour north through Chomu into the Aravallis to Samode.
- Samode Palace: rises over its village, its Durbar Hall and Sheesh Mahal glittering with painted and mirrored work. After the city, the quiet is wonderful.
- Dusk in the village: walk up while the Diwali lamps still burn in doorways, then dinner in a palace courtyard.
Day 6: Bhai Dooj, and onwards
The last day: on Bhai Dooj, sisters mark their brothers' foreheads with a tilak and feed them sweets, and families visit each other all day.
- Breakfast on the terraces: slowly.
- Onwards: Jaipur airport is about an hour and a half, the painted towns of Shekhawati about three hours, or on to Delhi.
Where you'll stay, and the alternatives
One of the busiest weeks: families from across India travel for the holiday, with the wedding season about to begin.
- Book months ahead: the best rooms go early.
- Wedding checks: we look at each hotel's calendar for large celebrations, wonderful to glimpse and loud at night.
Inside the walls: Samode Haveli
What it is: a nobleman's townhouse inside the walled city, with painted rooms, a pool in the garden and a dining room covered in murals.
- Why at Diwali: you walk out into the lit bazaars and back without a car, a real luxury in festival traffic.
- Ask for: a table on the terrace.
In a palace garden: Rambagh Palace
Its story: a garden house in 1835, then the home of Maharaja Sawai Man Singh II and Maharani Gayatri Devi, and a hotel since 1957.
- Diwali night: the grandest address in Jaipur, with lovely lawns and terraces.
- Best of both: we drive you into the old city for the bazaars and the rooftop, and back to calm.
Space and calm: The Oberoi Rajvilas
A private village: 32 acres outside the city, with a restored Shiva temple in its grounds.
- Choose it if: you want the festival in measured doses and a spa to retreat to.
- Our wider list: Jai Mahal Palace, The Leela Palace, Fairmont Jaipur and Raj Palace.
In the hills: Samode Palace or Alila Fort Bishangarh
Samode Palace: a village Diwali in a painted palace, for the night after.
- Alila Fort Bishangarh: a hilltop warrior fort turned hotel, the modern alternative.
- All compared: in luxury hotels in Jaipur.
When to go, and what the season brings
The five days: run from Dhanteras two days before Diwali to Bhai Dooj two days after.
Moving dates: they shift every year with the lunar calendar, and sometimes two festival days fall together, so we build your days around the confirmed dates.
- Diwali
- New moon of Kartik
- Usual month
- Late October or November
- Days
- Low thirties in late October, high twenties in November
- Wedding season
- Roughly November to February
- Dates
- We confirm them each year
- Among the best weather of the year: warm days and pleasantly cool evenings.
- Clear air, then smoke: the clearest air comes just after the rains, though Diwali night's fireworks bring a haze for a day or two.
- Firecracker rules: they change from year to year, and we keep you informed.
- Weddings begin: in some years the first big wedding dates fall within days of the festival. Palace gardens fill with bands and horses, and roads to the hotels slow down.
- A city celebrating: it adds to the mood, and we plan your evenings so it never gets in the way.
Before Diwali: Navratri and Dussehra
About three weeks earlier: the nine nights of Navratri fill the temples and the Shila Devi shrine at Amber.
- Dussehra: Dussehra ends them, when effigies of Ravana are burnt across the city.
- Both: in some years you can catch them as well as Diwali.
After Diwali: the Pushkar fair
About two weeks after: the Pushkar Camel Fair builds to the full moon of Kartik.
- Close by: Pushkar is about three hours from Jaipur.
- Straight on: our Pushkar Camel Fair journey can follow this one directly.
Make it yours
Shorter, in three nights
- The shape: arrive on Dhanteras, spend Diwali night on the rooftop and leave on Govardhan Puja.
- Where: Samode Haveli, so every evening is a walk.
Longer, with tigers or lakes
Tigers: two or three nights in Ranthambore, which reopens for safaris in October, at SUJAN Sher Bagh or The Oberoi Vanyavilas.
- Expect company: safari zones are busy in the holiday week.
- Lakes: fly to Udaipur, where lamps line the ghats and fireworks burst over Lake Pichola after Diwali, finishing on our Golden Triangle and Udaipur route.
With the painted towns
- Doors that open once a year: at Diwali some Shekhawati haveli owners come home from the cities and open houses locked the rest of the year.
- Four nights more: continue from Samode to our painted towns of Shekhawati for lamplit facades.
For families
What children love: sweets, sparklers, new clothes and mandana.
- Safety: keep the fireworks at a safe distance, use ear protection for small ones and choose a hotel with a garden.
- Pacing: our family journeys show how we plan festival days with children.
For couples
A suite at Rambagh: and a private dinner on a palace terrace on Diwali night.
- Two nights in the hills: at Samode or Alila Fort Bishangarh.
- Ideas: our private palace dinners page.
For repeat visitors
Makers at their busiest: spend the days with craftspeople finishing their festival orders.
- Who: a block-printing family in Bagru, the potters who make clay lamps, and the lac-bangle makers of Maniharon ka Rasta.
- Meet them: our crafts of Rajasthan page.
The sweets and food of Diwali
Mostly milk sweets: barfi in squares, kaju katli in silver-leafed diamonds, and the round laddoo of every kind.
A Jaipur winter treat: Mawa kachori, a flaky pastry filled with sweetened milk solids and dipped in syrup.
From the iron pans: the halwais of the walled city fry jalebi and imarti.
- Feeni: Feeni, a fine nest of threads of fried dough eaten soaked in milk, appears in the colder months.
- Buying sweets: taste in the bazaar, and buy boxes from the old, busy shops where the stock turns over by the hour.
- Festive meals: expect puri with spiced potatoes, dahi bada and sweet rice over the five days.
- For Govardhan Puja: a dish of mixed seasonal vegetables cooked for the Annakut.
- A royal table: laal maas or the gentler safed maas at your hotel, or a Rajasthani thali on a palace terrace.
- Our favourites: our food of Jaipur guide and Rajasthani sweets guide.
The people who make Diwali happen
The potters: in their neighbourhoods on the edge of the old city and the villages around it, families throw thousands of small clay diyas before Diwali, dry them in the sun and stack them in towers to sell by the dozen.
The best lamps: plain, slightly uneven and costing almost nothing. Lighting a row with mustard oil and cotton wicks is the oldest way to celebrate.
Try the wheel: we can take you to a potter's courtyard, and the lamps you make come with you to the rooftop.
- The bangle-makers: in the lanes off Tripolia Bazaar, lac bangles are shaped over small charcoal fires and pressed with glass and stones while the lac is soft.
- New sets for the festival: married women buy them, and the colours are at their brightest.
- Working late: jewellers in Johari Bazaar finish their orders, and sweet makers cook through the night, stirring milk in great iron pans until it thickens into mawa.
- The night crews: flower sellers, decorators and the electricians who string the bazaars, mostly working through the night before the lights are switched on.
- Their most important week: they are the reason the city glows.
- Buy from the maker: a garland, a box of lamps or a set of bangles, at the price asked, with a smile. That is very Jaipur.
- Where we go and why: our crafts of Rajasthan page, our shopping guide and our note on responsible travel.
How we look after you
Met and driven: at Jaipur airport or from Delhi, with a private chauffeur throughout.
On the busiest evenings: we park outside the walls and walk you in.
- Walled-city guides: who grew up there and know which rooftops have the best view on Diwali night.
- People we've known for years: we arrange the family puja, the mandana afternoon, the sari or turban fitting and the rooftop dinner with them.
- Gifts for your hosts: small boxes of sweets are taken care of, as every Jaipur family would expect.
- Your planner on WhatsApp: throughout, for a late dinner, a changed plan or a question about a ritual.
- No published prices: Diwali is a peak week and the dates move each year, so we quote after one conversation about how you like to travel.
Who will love it, and who should choose another journey
You'll love it if: you enjoy celebrations, families, shopping and light.
A home, not a monument: you want to be welcomed into one, and don't mind sharing the city with a great many happy people.
- First-timers: those who want to feel the life of Rajasthan, not just its history, find it unforgettable.
- Harder if: you dislike noise and smoke, or want the great sights at their quietest.
- What to expect: fireworks late into Diwali night, packed bazaars, and some shops closed for the puja and the day after.
- Jaipur calm instead: come in February and choose Jaipur in three nights or The Royal Rajputana.
- The wider season: our Rajasthan in November guide.
What we tell our cousins before Diwali
One new outfit: wearing something new on Diwali is part of the festival, and families will notice and be delighted.
A box of sweets: the expected gift when you visit a home. The host will send you away with another.
- Greeting
- Diwali ki shubhkamnayein, or Happy Diwali
- Gift
- A box of sweets
- Dress
- Something new
- Shoes
- Off in homes and shop shrines
- Diwali night
- A scarf for the smoke
- Shoes off: before entering a home or a shop that has become a shrine for the puja.
- The greeting: Diwali ki shubhkamnayein, best wishes for Diwali, or simply Happy Diwali. Both are welcome.
- Smoke and fireworks: keep a scarf for the smoke on Diwali night, and stay well back from fireworks in the street.
- No shops, politely: say no to anyone who suggests one. Our guides are paid never to play the commission game, and our shopping guide explains how to buy well.
